


The Woman Out Of Time

by Pseudoanonymous



Series: The Woman Out Of Time (Series) [1]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Fluff, Lesbian Sex, Romance, Slow Burn, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-08-17 00:01:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 51
Words: 73,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8122687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pseudoanonymous/pseuds/Pseudoanonymous
Summary: The story of Sole Survivor Nora and Piper Wright told mostly in vignettes. They kick ass, fall in love, take down the Institute, and do it because it's right.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is the atmospheric and broody prologue chapter; next chapter we'll pick up with meeting Piper outside of Diamond City and things get a little brighter.

i

_It’s not my life._

_It’s not my life. It’s not my life. It’s not my life._

Nora huddled on the blood-crusted mattress in the pall of dim light that hung over her head. Her eyes flicked between the water stained pad of paper on which she was now writing and the eerie green of the Pip-Boy.

> Time: 9:34pm, October 23rd

It had been 12 hours – since emerging from that frozen metal coffin, since throwing up for an hour, thick black liquid she only hoped was typical of cryo sickness. 12 hours since she slipped Nate’s cold wedding ring off his finger and into her pocket where it sat now and seemed never to have warmed up.

She glanced over at her haul for the day’s scrounging, ammo a small selection of consumer chemicals she was sure wasn’t enough to put an end to her if it had to. A bullet might have to do.

She thought of Shaun; actually she thought of Codsworth. She’d found a broken Mr. Handy in the neighborhood that reminded her of him. The machine was missing its fuel catalyzer, probably carried off by someone yesterday or years ago. There was probably no hope of finding it.

There was a radio, carrying faint crackles of a man’s voice and songs that she could almost make out. Nora did not know if it was prerecorded. And now, forced underground by a roiling, thunderous green cloud sweeping above Sanctuary that crackled with spectacular lightning and radiation, she found a root cellar.

She drank herself to sleep on the three Gwinnet Stouts she found next to a safe.

She did not dream.

 

ii

Sanctuary was not the same. But the neighbors were still as terrible as ever, and Nora put six of the fuckers down before noon. Only difference was now they were terrible overgrown insects on the outside, too.

_I shouldn’t think like that._ But the gallows humor helped, somehow. _Just get Shaun back._

As the sun set over her new life for the second unbearable time, Nora walked out over the bridge and saw the body of a man in the road. _Maybe everything is fucked up like this now. The roaches, the flies, the dogs. At least people look the same._ Nora rifled through his clothes anyway, finding trash – broken weapon, bottle caps.

And then the flare of metal reflecting the setting sun caught her eye. The fuel catalyzer. Intact.

Nora ran at least as fast back to Sanctuary as she had run out. By nightfall those tech skills from the service had finally paid for themselves, and the crippled Mr. Handy she had found the day before whirred clumsily back to life, glaring brightly in the night.

When it spoke, Nora nearly fell over.

It _was_ Codsworth. _Her friend_.

What followed was one of the most wonderful and terrible conversations Nora had ever had.

Two hundred years.

_Two hundred fucking years_.

 

iii

Nora awoke in ungodly discomfort. Every inch of her body hurt, all the way to the roots of her hair. If she’d been able to think straight she’d have realized how immunocompromised cryo left her – but was it was Codsworth who had to put it together.

As hours passed she became weaker and the wound on her shoulder became redder and angrier. In a fit of desperation she walked the perimeter of Sanctuary looking for help and found a man, up at the base of the cliffs. A man and a dog.

Nora nearly ran to him, gun away, hands up in a placating gesture, voice as friendly as she could make it.

When he saw her, he too raised his hand.

And his gun. One shot, a clean through-and-through, miraculously missed any vital components in her left forearm. The searing pain blinded her for a moment, but not long enough to forget herself. In a heartbeat her gun went up, pure instinct, and fired off two shots in quick succession. Both pierced his neck and he fell, blood pouring freely down his bare chest into the soft earth. He did not make a sound.

The first person she’s seen in 200 years, and she’d killed him.

Afterwards sat in that shack, next to a corpse of stranger with a needle still in its arm, while she stemmed the flow of her own blood and she wondered if this was all that was left, and if it even mattered. She had probably only a few hours to treat her wound or she’d have woken up on the wrong side of death all for nothing.

_Red Rocket. That old gas station. That’s got to have something._

Nora didn’t bother to pace herself; she was racing the clock now. Every bit of water she sipped came back up, and her vision began to darken and tunnel.

As she crested the hill to Red Rocket, a form moved low to the ground and slunk towards her. Gun out, ready, Nora saw the creature move towards her. It was a dog, but his tail was wagging – his tongue was out – _thank god_.

She had really needed a friend.

“Hey boy” Nora cooed. “Where’s your owner, huh boy?” He just happily wagged his tail and sniffed at her fingers.

She’d call him Dog for now. He had a good nose and liked the bit of Cram Nora had offered, and happily trailed her as she stumbled from the building and towards the highest point she could see – the Concord water tower. Maybe if she could climb the ladder she’d see a settlement, a town, anything? But she was too weak, she knew it. She crumbled down at the base of the structure, hand weakly out to pet Dog, muttering apologies to Shaun and herself and Nate, even.

_So this is how it ends. 200 years for nothing._

Out with a whimper, not with a bang.

When her hand fell it hit something metallic. A box.

A first aid box, concealed in the grass.

The medicine was expired, but Nora knew it would work – it had to. 6 pills in her – double dose – with 6 after in a course. The whole bottle, but she needed it.

She could do this. She could survive this. The next morning, no matter how weak she felt, she’d rise and go to Concord and find him. She would.

 

iv

She was too weak. She tried, god, she tried to get out of bed. She ended up sitting on the floor of the small underground shelter in the wet dirt eating Fancy Lad Cakes out of the package and reading an old Grognak over and over for hours while Dog curled up at her side.

At least she was keeping water down. Too much, actually; her supply dwindled to one lone can, and was gone. She had to go to the backup plan, the one she’d been dreading.

_The vault._

Dog didn’t want to go in. He whined and cowered and acted like a great malaise had come down upon them, and Nora agreed. But she needed water, and the vault had it, pure and cold.

Going back in was like going back to the grave. A frozen mausoleum. Remembering it now it seemed like she’d gone through it all again with her eyes closed. Maybe she had. Automatically she gathered water; automatically she washed, for the first time, in the freezing water with an ancient sliver of soap. She cleaned her ragged, healing wound, and washed her clothes, and tried to make the freezing water hurt as much as possible.

She did not go to Nate. She did not see any bodies. Still, she cried.

Tomorrow, tomorrow would be Concord. Tomorrow she would be strong.

 

 

v

When Nora looked back on her journey to Concord, it was difficult to remember specific events.

There was the killing. Shooting, shooting, killing. There was a monster, Nora could almost recall, something that came to Mama Murphy in a dream before it came to Nora in a nightmare.

There was the armor. The godsend; protection. She had hated Power Armor’s unwieldiness in the service, but now she never wanted to leave it. She stayed until the Fusion Core whined and quit.

Another sign: they had been headed to her home. Her old home.

She followed them. What else could she do? It was like she was in a waking dream.

 

vi-iv

The thing was, she knew weapons and armor from her years in the service; she knew explosives, field medicine, and basic unarmed combat. She knew tactics and especially she knew shooting. She was excellent at shooting.

But in those few days of healing – four days, far too long to placate the chanting in her mind - _Find Shaun. Find Shaun. Find Shaun_ \- she learned to really _build_. And destroy.

She took glee in the tearing down of things; erasing this perpetual Halloween.

Mama Murphy taught her what she could eat, what she could cook the poison out of, and what would kill her outright. She taught her the trade value of chems and food and scrap, and caught her up on the bottle cap currency system.

Even Marcy, that bitch, taught her how and what to plant.

Working with her hands calmed Nora; it focused her and let her forget – pretend to forget. She distracted herself with learning about this new world: what she could eat and plant, how and what to trade, the way to Diamond City.

When she readied herself to go they all knew she had no real intention of ever seeing any of them again.

“I’m sorry Preston. You’ve come this far.”

“I understand, Nora. I do. Let me know if you change your mind and…be safe out there.”

He shook her hand anyway, and seemed to think they had made a fair trade saving each other’s lives. It was Halloween night, her last night in Sanctuary, and it felt like she was too close to the veil. She could nearly see back through time, back to Nate. Back to her mother and her father and her brothers and friends.

The Concord 5 celebrated while Nora mourned.

 

x

On that 10th day she left in Power Armor with Dogmeat in tow, Codsworth left behind to protect the under-gunned settlement, and when she bid him farewell he produced for her a beaten and discolored holotape he’d been safeguarding over the centuries. In Nate’s messy scrawl it read “Hi, Honey.”

She didn’t listen to it, not then. She carried water and food enough for two days travel, and, pointed its way by a kite-high Mama Murphy, flung herself like an arrow towards the glowing heart of Diamond City.

Towards her son.

-

The trip was a fucking nightmare.

All the way down to the city Nora followed roads and railroad tracks, she felt like she was weaving through the charred corpse of her old life, the rotten twisting intestines of her old city of Boston, now diseased, now dead, belching out at her the hounds of hell and rotting corpses of those _ghouls_ Preston has told her about.

She came upon Oberland, and the two women there traded her tatos and water for the two Gwinnet Brews in her pack, and though they were generous and kind to her they had no beds to rent, so she walked on down the tracks towards the heart of old Boston.

And then, along the tracks, Nora came upon the strangest man. He was in a smart pinstriped suit but not seeming to mind the light rain.

As Nora came closer she realized – _his face, oh god. What…he’s a ghoul. This is what Preston meant. It’s ok, it’s ok_.

“Hiya dame,” the man canted back in a thick Boston accent. _Good to know that’s still a thing_. “You lookin’ for a job?”

It must’ve been the armor. _I must look like my own personal army for hire_. _Wonder if he’d be a little more aggressive if he saw my vault suit._

She powered through the conversation, thankful that she was hidden behind her cracked visor because she could not look into his dead, black, receding eye sockets to save her life.

And the sun reddened with the evening, Nora found an abandoned overpass to curl up in. Just as she was releasing her armor, she heard the smallest, saddest sound.

 “P…please. Miss. Please.” The voice was so small Nora could have imagined it. “Water. Please.”

Nora rushed over, a can of purified water from her pack, setting down heavily on one knee in her armor. Wordlessly she helped the woman drink.

“Are you…Brotherhood?”

Nora shook her head. “I’ve been hearing about them, today, though. Are you ok?”

“I’ll…I’ll be ok. I just have to make it a little ways longer, I just need to rest…”

Nora nodded. _She’s dying, isn’t she_. “I’ll stay the night, my dog too. He’s Dogmeat.” At his name he perked up for a moment and then returned to rummaging.

That first night, under the overpass, Nora noticed the Pip-Boy ( _her_ Pip-Boy now, she should get used to it) flashing angrily at her.

> Body Temperature: 101.1F

_Fuck_.

She was out of doxycycline. At least it wasn’t another infection; the cryo really had done a number on her.

She listened to Nate’s tape. She listened over and over again after the woman had gone to sleep.

She stared at his scrawl: “Hi, Honey.”

She didn’t cry. Instead she spent the last hour of the day wondering where all her emotions had gone. She felt dead, dead like those black eyes, dead like surely this woman was, a ghost, out of her world, outside of everything. Her dreams were brutal; detached.

She did not dream about Shaun, or Nate, or that scarred man, or even her new friends or her old life. In her dreams, she saw her journey unfold into a swarm of vicious Raiders–men and women who smeared their face with grease and hung their decaying prey from pikes as warnings to the wasteland. She saw herself stumble into their nest, she saw her body filled with bullets and pulled apart and nailed to the wall. Only then did she awake.

It was a dream Nora would have for many nights, for many months, in endless variation. Her dream of the wasteland.

 

xii

The second day on the way to Diamond City was as bad as the first. Worse – she felt more fatigued, more alone, more desperate, more marked for death. She was hungrier and food tasted worse. Her hair was matted with sweat and dried blood under her helmet.

Walking along Mass Pike towards the stadium lights ringing the corroded skeleton of Fenway Park, the lights shone like a beacon in the distance.

It was a thickly foggy day in old Boston and there was a light drizzle of rain in late morning, so she settled down in a burned out brownstone and ate. Stalling her approach to Diamond City.

She was scared shitless.


	2. The Great Green Jewel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper and Nora meet; Fenway is a whole different monster.

Nora approached Fenway slowly, musket cradled in her arm. Dogmeat padded after her in curious zigzags, sniffing the ground. The air was clear after the rain, but from inside her helmet all she could smell was the tang of sweat and blood. Guards of Diamond City walked about, greeting her distantly – _baseball combat armor, will wonders ever cease?_ – and Nora figured it was safe enough to take the helmet off. She shook her hair of sweat and breathed in deeply.

_Who’d’ve thought the future would smell like burning?_

From where Nora was a walking a voice carried, a woman’s voice, and Nora scanned the area to find the source of it –

One red trench coat-clad woman, evidently carrying on a conversation with a com speaker, just outside the entrance to the city. She gestured animatedly as she talked, and though her voice was liltingly and playful, Nora could sense her annoyance. They must be arguing. 

“Whadda ya mean you can’t open the gate? Stop playing around here Danny, I’m standing out in the open here for crying out loud!”

“I got orders not to let you in Ms. Piper, I’m sorry. I’m just doin’ my job.” The voice on the other end was meek, almost embarrassed.

“Oooh, just ‘doin’ your job!’ Protecting Diamond City means keeping me out, is that it? ‘Oh look, it’s the scary reporter!’” The woman’s hands shot up mockingly as if Danny could see through the com. “Boo!”

 Nora smiled. _She smiled_ , for the first time in days, at this ridiculous sassy firecracker of a woman in a red leather coat.

“Ughh! You open this gate right now Danny Sullivan!” Nora snapped back, having spaced out on whatever it was the com was saying; something about the Mayor? “I live here, you can’t just lock me out!”

_She lives here. I’ve got an in._

This Piper woman sighed, turned, collected herself in a matter of seconds, and finally, noticed Nora. All seven feet of pre-war steel of her, attack dog at her heels.

Piper’s eyes widened for only a moment before narrowing mischievously. _She looks like she has a plan and I’m part of it._

“You.” Piper whispered conspiratorially, “You want into Diamond City, right?” She spared a look at Dogmeat; a half-smile.

Nora did. And she played along weakly until that great green wall lifted up and she could feel her path opening again before her. Piper had a few choice things to say about the “monster” as they walked together inside, but nothing like what she had to say about the Mayor, Nora soon learned.

The man, sunburned and puffy in his ripped suit, waited for her inside. Nora had meant to walk past but something about Piper compelled her to stick around; _it’ll be a good show, anyway_ Nora thought with another smile.

“Piper, who let you back inside! I told Sullivan to keep that gate shut! You devious, rabble-rousing slanderer. The level of dishonesty in that paper of yours! I’ll have that printer scrapped for parts.”

Nora started to consider running.

“Ooh, that a statement McDonough? ‘Tyrant Mayor Shuts Down the Press’” Piper mocked him again with hand gestures, punctuating each word of her new headline in the air before him. “Why don’t we ask the newcomer? Do you support the news?” Piper volleyed the question at Nora aggressively instead of letting the woman escape. _Damn_. Well, if she was stuck here she might as well back up this plucky reporter; the Mayor here was clearly not all on the up and up.

“I always did believe in freedom of the press.” Nora said curtly. “Freedom of speech was big where I came from. I went to war for it, and I can’t say I regret it.”

The look on Piper’s face was odd, almost like she’d never quite heard something like that before. But the degree to which the Mayor licked her expensive boots was what really convinced her that he was scummier than she originally thought and that Piper was probably on to something. Another fight for another woman; not her. _Find Shaun_.

And suddenly they were talking about him; Nora had been cagey, didn’t mention he was her son, but even still, Piper was sympathetic. The Mayor was all talk, and he scurried away, mumbling hollow words to Nora before he shot an actual threat at Piper which only seemed to encourage the woman.

Piper chased him off with “Yeah, keep talking McDonough, that’s all your good for.”

Nora liked this girl. When she turned back, she had that mischievous look again. The threat had clearly lit a fire. She seemed to appraise the stranger and her power armor and musket and bewildered demeanor for just a moment before saying “Hmm, a big Diamond City welcome from the Mayor. Feel honored yet?” Her hands shot out, talking as loud as she was. “Look, I gotta go get settled in, but, um, stop by my office later.” Her hands dropped and her voice changed, calmed. “I have an idea for an article you’d be perfect for.”

Nora wanted to grumble to herself about being conspicuous, but to tell the truth, that conversation had left her oddly light. She looked out towards old Fenway with a ghost of a smile still on her lips. When she walked heavily down into Diamond City, the clanging of her Power Armor boots on the metal steps was drowned out by the noise in her head. _Look at this place. Fenway. Diamond City_.

She walked past Piper and her sister, Nat, apparently, hugging each other and bantering about what exactly Nora couldn’t make out, not wanting to be rude. But she was pretty sure it was Piper playing off the seriousness of what had just happened.

The city was alive. A pastor swept his step and welcomed Nora with a wave and a word. Shops bustled, a Doctor and a Barber plied their services. And in the center of it all, a reactor, wires from every reach of the city drawing into it, leading like the lines of a tent to a food counter, neon sign blazing even in the daylight: _Power Noodles_.

This is a whole city. _Fenway – there, where I sat with Nate on our first game here together. God, that’s where concessions were – ticketing – the bathrooms are still bathrooms, I see_ – Nora was overwhelmed.

She walked through the market in just her vault suit, trading and asking lightly around about an infant.

It was actually Nat, hawking papers outside her house on a literal soapbox, who pointed Nora to someone who might help. “Mister Valentine.”

_Valentine. The glowing heart of Diamond City._

A shiver ran through Nora, the same as had when Mama Murphy had spoken of the monster drawn by chaos – _Jesus. Could it really be? –_

But when Nora got there, she found only a woman in a ratty skirt and vest talking to herself. Ellie was kind, actually truly kind, but feeling her own loss it was clear to Nora.

_Gone._

_Valentine was gone. Just like Shaun._

And just like Shaun, _she would find him._


	3. Getting the Skinny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short Valentine chapter with a little Ellie too.

The first time Nora had seen Nick Valentine emerge into the light she nearly yelped.

But Dogmeat wagged his tail and barked, and Nora was just a little more at easy.

The night of November 3rd should have been a warm mug of cider in Nora’s hand, but it was 30 sleepless minutes chugging coffee outside of Nick’s newly sprung holding cell in Vault 114, daring herself not to fall asleep on the dirty mattress she’d sat down on. Dogmeat whined worriedly.

“So kid, I’m guessing you didn’t come all this way to spring me from solitary.”

Nora shook her head wearily. “Would it surprise you to know I want something from you?”

Valentine chuckled in his deep machine rasp and shook his head. “It surprise me if you didn’t. Have a case?”

“Missing person.”

“Ah. Well, sorry you got dragged into this, Nora. I guess my mug wasn’t the most friendly to see coming at you from the shadows.”

Nora was quiet for a moment, then took a big gulp of the lukewarm coffee she’d found next to the bed and patted Dogmeat on the head. “You scared the shit out of me. Sorry.”

“I’ve had worse reactions.”

Nora snickered bitterly. “Should’ve seen how I handled the first ghoul I met.”

“You must have a lot to get used to around here.”

“I’m trying not to think about it. I just need to find…him. I need to find my son.”

Nick’s carbon fiber eyebrows shot up. “Your…oh. I’m sorry. I am, really. Listen, the moment we get back to the agency we can start a casefile. If we get back, I guess.”

“We’ll get back, Nick.” She believed it, but still she felt nothing.

Nick just nodded, stood, and lit another cigarette.

They did get back. Thank god for Skinny’s bad taste in women and Nora’s way with words. Nora’s last Fusion Core died in sight of Diamond City and she had to abandon the suit to the guards, hobbling out of it and straight to the doctor’s on Nick’s arm. She practically still had an IV in her arm when she stumbled into the Valentine Detective Agency, and Ellie already had a pot of hot coffee on. It seemed the woman couldn’t sleep knowing Nick was still out there; Nora felt like she should’ve given the two some privacy when she saw the way Ellie wrapped her arms around Nick’s thin frame and said “Oh god, it’s really you.” She looked away at least and got handed a cup of coffee for her trouble.

 _I think these people are my friends_ , Nora thought vaguely while tilting the cup to her lips, wallet pleasantly heavier because god knows those Fusion Cores do not buy themselves.

“We were in a vault when it happened…Vault 111.” Nora felt herself began mechanically, caffeine running her mouth without her brain entirely present. “We were in cryo. I didn’t even know something like that was possible. When I was in the army there were rumors, but I never thought – it didn’t even occur to me that’s what the pods were for. Stupid, right? How could you not think of it? I guess that’s the end of the world for you.”

“How long were you frozen?” Nick asked patiently.

 _Oh well. Fuck it._ She took another sip of coffee spilled her guts to Nick and Ellie, who was writing furiously in what looked like shorthand on a clipboard while her eyes tracked Nick and Nora, as big as saucers. Just like with the Concord five, Nora could just not bring herself to keep it in. It was too much; it occupied too big a space in her body to hide.

She talked about Shaun and the man who took him and _Christ, even Nate, her husband._

She told them everything, and they were kind to her.


	4. Belly of the Beast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora gets to insult Geneva, flirt with Piper, and kill Kellogg all in the same chapter.

By the time Nora stumbled back out into the market with Nick it was only noon – the interview had taken a paltry 90 minutes, but it was the most tiring of her life. Coffee did little to cut the edge. She scanned the market scene, wondering if she’d see that girl in the red leather coat doing interviews, or her spunky sister crying on the new issue. But Piper wasn’t in the market, and Nat seemed to actually be at school.

“Hey kid, you doing alright? Sometimes I forget you have to eat and sleep and the like. We can do the Mayor thing tomorrow.”

“No, I’m fine, really Nick. Tired as hell. But let’s not lose the trail.”

The view from the Mayor’s cable elevator was inspiring. Diamond City spilled out into the stands in every direction, little plumes of smoke and colorful signs dotting the view. _It’s…it’s actually beautiful._ _Is this what a group like the Minutemen could do if they had enough time and resources?_

“Why doesn’t the mayor come out of his office, huh?” A familiar voice cut through Nora’s thoughts. “He afraid of talking to the press? I bet if I said I was with the Institute he’d come running…”

It was like Piper appeared whenever Nora though of her. Like she was being summoned. Nora smiled as she stepped off the elevator to Piper’s rapid-fire conversation. _This girl is something else._

“You ever think you could get a man’s attention easier if you used softer words, honey?” Simpered an overly made-up woman at the front desk. “You know –”

_Holy shit, what did she just say?_

“Holy shit, what did you just say?” Nora interrupted abruptly. “What the fuck year am I in now, 1930?”

Piper spun around, expression quizzical but amused. She smirked at the survivor before turning back to the secretary. “You know Geneva, that reminds me of an article I’m writing about the Mayor’s affair with a certain air-headed blonde!” Piper shot before whipping back to Nora conspiratorially. “Oooh, look who it is.” Piper said stage whisper with a smile. “What brings you to the Mayor’s office? Came to joke around with old Geneva.” She raised her voice again and half-turned over her shoulder. “Very old Geneva.” Geneva angrily shuffled papers behind her with a little hrumph.

“What are _you_ doing here, Piper?” Nora asked with a half-cocked grin, glad to see the reporter. “Another day, another dollar?”

“Another – huh?” Piper paused, consider her with raised eyebrows. She dropped her voice back down, a real whisper now “Trying to find out why the mayor happens to be meeting with the same suspicious courier every other week.”

As Piper whispered more about her suspicions, Nora thinking _prostitute, probably_ and Piper thinking _Institute, definitely_ , Geneva interrupted caustically.

“If you’re done crowding the reception area, Piper –”

“I was just leaving anyway.” Piper cut her off with a little hrumph of her own. She walked towards the utility elevator as Nora approached the desk, only to turn around when the doors opened.

“Hey, Blue?”

Nora tipped her head back, lifting the brim of her Minuteman hat to see Piper better.

“Good luck with Mayor McDonough. Just watch yourself with him, ok?” There was real concern in her voice. “And, I heard you brought Nick back. Thanks….thanks for that. He’s one of the good ones.”

“I’m starting to get the feeling you are too, Piper.”

She just smiled and adjusted her press cap before stepping back into the elevator. “Likewise, Blue.” And the doors closed.

-

What Nora couldn’t see, in the descending darkness of the elevator, was Piper turn pink and groan to herself. “Likewise, Blue? _Likewise, Blue_?? Geez, get a grip papergirl.”

-

When they finally got into Kellogg’s Nora spent a half-hour starting at the bedroll that had certainly been her son’s before abruptly snapping at Nick that they were going to go get him that very minute. Her tiredness evaporated into iron resolve, and she nearly ran to snatch her Power Armor from Arturo’s where she’d paid to have it maintained. She put down enough bottlecap notes for another Fusion Core, popped it in, and suited up right there, paint still drying.

“Come on boy, let’s find him.”

Dogmeat pointed, and Nick flicked his cigarette away.

-

Nora killed Kellogg.

She had meant it to be satisfying. She wanted to feel it. But he had vanished before her and Nick yelled out something about stealth and Nora didn’t have time, she just let loose with the Fat Man and where he had stood was a crater with a ragdoll at the bottom of it.

Radiation crackled off him angrily like his ghost leaving his body. Which was silly; he had no ghost. He had no soul.

_That’s what you get staying up on Nuka Cola and stims, just like the last time with Nick. Don’t get to enjoy anything._

And Shaun, Shaun was gone.

_The Institute._

_Gone, gone._

Her mind was muddled and far away. By the time she’d walked out into the sunlight steaming through twisted branches above Fort Hagen, Nick had to remind her to find Dogmeat, who a day earlier whined and paced and flatly refused to follow them in. But he was gone – probably back to Sanctuary, Mama Murphy – and it made Nora’s stomach twist in a tiny sad little knot. That, of everything that happened at Hagen, had made her want to quit.

She flashed back to that very first night; the root cellar, the bullet in her gun. It was the same story as before. Shaun was still out there and there was no dying until she found him. And he grew up. And found happiness, and had children, and did good things and THEN Nora could die and thank god for Shaun.


	5. Neo-Neo-Noir

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper and Nora discuss Shaun and the Institute and then eat some food because that shit is exhausting.

When Nora did finally tilt her sorry ass into Piper’s house well past midnight she didn’t have the bandwidth to do anything but get to the point. She figured Piper could handle it.

Aside from Piper framing the whole thing as a Sunday Extra – even calling her an “avenging parent” like it was a headline – she was listening. And more importantly, she wasn’t spooked. Even by this _insane_ idea of Nick’s.

“I guess we’re going to need a piece of Kellogg’s brain. Enough gray matter to bring to Amari and find out if it’s gonna work…”

“Jesus, Nick. Gross! Seriously?” Piper canted back to him, and Nora wondered how old she really was. When they’d met she looked older, weathered and wan against the big green wall. But now she moved her hands like a young woman, tilted her head to show the smallest snaggletooth, and it made her look oddly young.

 _The crazy brain train it is_ , Nora thought with a strange bit of humor as Nick was saying something about Amari and about Nora having to go back to that tomb she left Kellogg’s rotting corpse in.

 _Just a few more steps_ Nick had said. It echoed, echoed, echoed in Nora’s brain.

_Get Shaun Back. Just a few more steps._

She looked up; hadn’t realized she was looking down. Nick was leaving, having said something about needing to go see Amari now and not needing to sleep like some people. Piper was halfway through a joke about being a lazy regular when her eyes hit Nora’s.

Piper stopped dead, sentence hanging. In that moment Nora knew she could see through her, all the way.

“He’s my son.” Nora whispered. It was like Piper already knew.

Piper’s eyes got wide for a second before becoming dark and focused.

“Then we’ll get him first.” She said plainly. There was no room in her tone for uncertainty. “But Blue…um, take a day to resupply, ok? Hey, I’ve got an idea. Meet me at noon tomorrow.”

-

Piper’s idea was food, and Nora couldn’t have said it was a bad one.

Nora settled down deeply onto the metal stool at Takahashi’s counter. She could feel the hang in her shoulders but didn’t care. Piper waited just a beat before sitting beside her.

“You’ve got that thousand-yard stare, Blue.”

“Still thinking about Kellogg.” Nora said, pinching the bridge of her nose. “That…that boy he came in with, what was he like? Was he ok? Was he happy?” Nora’s voice had turned hopeful, fragile.

Piper looked a little stricken, but responded. “To be honest, I didn’t see him much. He didn’t go to school with Nat. But he looked normal. Fine. He seemed fine, Blue.”

“What did he look like?”

“Light skin, dark hair. Really Blue, that’s all I remember. We never even spoke.”

“It doesn’t matter, it couldn’t have been him. Shaun is an _infant_. The Institute couldn’t age a kid ten years in a day, right?”

Piper nodded, listening, unsure.

“And if they could, why would they? Why take an infant just to age him? It couldn’t have been him. Besides, you said he showed up here more than a week before…before I…” Nora hesitated. She hadn’t told Piper about cryo, about being from another world. “ _Before_ he took Shaun. So Kellogg must’ve been in Diamond City with another kid a week or two before he came to the vault. A different kid, a different job. Maybe not even a kidnapping, nothing to do with the Institute.”

Piper nodded again, then, very carefully, she asked “Why do you think Kellogg talked about Shaun being older?”

Nora pinched the bridge of her nose. “Because he was a goddamn fucking murderer. He was probably just fucking with me because he knew he’d lost. You should’ve heard him talking to me on the com system. He knew I was in the building but he didn’t know where. He knew I was coming for him. At first he was so fucking foolhardy, but after a few hours he started warning me to go home, giving me an out. I could heard the fear in his voice.”

Nora turned, face twisted into a grimace of anger, to see Piper with both eyebrows raised.

“Blue? Who did he murder?”

Nora turned to stare straight ahead. _Fuck, that’s right. I only told Valentine and Ellie_.

“He…he killed Nate.” Nora took a deep breath. “He’s my…was my husband. He was holding Shaun, he wouldn’t let go…Kellogg shot him. Took Shaun right out of his dead father’s arms. I…saw everything.”

For the first time since they’d met, Piper didn’t say a thing. Nora couldn’t stand to look back at her. After a moment of wondering in silence if she was just too fucked up to talk to even for Piper, Nora moved to get up. But a hand on her shoulder, soft but steady, stopped her.

“I am so sorry, Nora. I can’t imagine what you’re going through.” Piper said, voice sincere. When Nora turned back to her she could see Piper’s expression: real sympathy. Her dark eyebrows knitted together with concern. _I’m just grieving woman to her, wonder how many of us she’s met. But she really cares about this_. “But no matter what, Shaun is out there. Kellogg wouldn’t lie about that, he wouldn’t have a reason to. Whoever took Shaun obviously wants to keep him alive and safe. And if it is the _Institute_ ” she whispered the name conspiratorially “well, you’ve picked the right set of Diamond City dicks to help you. I’ve wanted the scoop on them for _ages_!”

Nora nodded, a tiny bit of relief seeping in at the corners. _She’s right, he’s out there and Kellogg isn’t; that’s real progress. Nate would be…he’d be happy Kellogg’s dead. Well, not happy. But he’d think it was right._ “Why do I have the feeling you’d be accompanying me back to Fort Hagen with or without an invitation?”

Piper scoffed, pushing Nora lightly with the hand that rested on her shoulder, before withdrawing it and adjusting her hat. “You can’t keep the press from the truth!” She declared with an enthusiastic gesture. “Listen, noodles on me today. Power Noodles is a Diamond City tradition, and with how much you helped Nicky and all, I think you qualify as an honorary citizen. And I can introduce you to my secret informant.”


	6. Igor, Get Me That Brain!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a happier chapter; Nora and Piper go back to get the goods (read: brains) from Kellogg, and Nora finally does that interview.

The trip to Fort Hagen was so, so much easier the second time around. Piper was extremely capable with a pistol and with the finer skills required by the Commonwealth – skinning a kill, navigating between charred buildings, avoiding Raiders or ferals just by some tiny noise in the distance. She forced Nora to play DCR the _entire_ way, and though Nora jokingly feigned annoyance, she secretly enjoyed the melodies of her old life when someone like Piper was around to hum along.

By the time they’d made it back to Hagen, down towards Kellogg’s control room via the elevator, Piper was practically bounding down the halls, excited as she was for the inside scoop on a real confirmed Institute base. Her enthusiasm was lightening Nora’s mood by the second.

“So, what, you and Nick just blew the walls down and took out _all_ of these synths?”

“There were _some_ tactics involved.” Nora said playfully, rummaging through some lockers she hadn’t been able to scavenge the first time around. “So, you’ve seen these kind of synths before?”

“Most people who don’t stay in the walls have seen the Gen 1s and 2s around. Most of the time they ignore us, but sometimes they’ll get aggressive. And people in Diamond City have seen the skin models – Gen 3s. But some people still deny that they’re made by the Institute, or that there even is an Institute.” Piper explained, crouching for a better view on one that Nick had bludgeoned to death, letting out a small _wow_.

“What do people think they are?”

“Pre-war orphans, I guess. Like the Mr. Handys and Sentry Bots you see sometimes. People love to turn the other way.” Piper finished in a grumble, leaning closer to a fallen Gen 1. “This is incredible! If only everyone in Diamond City could see this…then they’d know…then they’d buy the damned paper…” Piper muttered to herself, turning over every panel, every synth, picking up little components and scraps of paper here and there.

When they finally walked into the control room and up to Kellogg’s body, Piper turned away subtly, trying to play it off.

“Wow, Blue. You did a number on him. What’d you, nuke the guy?”

“Yes.”

Piper did a double take. “W-what?”

“Found a Fat Man down the hall, I think Kellogg must’ve thought he had it locked tight.” Nora’s lips curled into a proud grin. “No match for me.”

“Yeah, can’t keep you out, huh?” Piper smiled, wiggling her fingers. “Wow, so…this will be kind of interesting.”

“Yeah, I wonder what kind of magic Dr. Amari can work on a skull full of pudding.”

“Oh, totally gross Blue.” Piper turned away in earnest now, trying not to gag. It was kind of satisfying to Nora in a sick way, knowing there was nothing left of the man. She bent down to him, his skull cracked and leaking, to go to work –

“Wait, Blue…ugh…let me do it.”

“Really? You, miss totally-gross?”

“Well, yeah, ok. But you shouldn’t have to.”

Nora was caught off-guard by that. “No, no. it’s ok. Thanks though. I…it doesn’t really bother me. I don’t know why.”

Piper appraised her with a _whatever works_ look as Nora began sawing away with her camp knife. Abruptly she stopped.

“Hey, Pipes.”

“Ugh, what?” Piper said, cautiously peering over Nora’s shoulder.

“I think I found something.”

-

The rest of their time in Fort Hagen was Nora pulling Piper away from every dead synth and half-full filing cabinet, trying to respond to her endless volley of questions – do you think they were being controlled remotely? Did you see any other models? Were they skilled at combat? Did they know who you were? – as best and briefly as she could, feeling worst by the second that she’d let Piper to risk her life to come out here without even knowing the whole story.

By the time they’d settled for the night, Nora was resolved that Piper deserved to know about the cryo. She looked past the dim light of their makeshift fire over to the reporter, who was bedding down for the night in a dark corner.

“Hey, Piper?” Nora asked quietly as she walked to the far side of the fire and sat down against the wall.

“Yeah Blue?” Piper looked up from her scavenged magazine, gumdrops in hand.

“I wanted to talk to you, about the vault.”

“Doing the interview finally? Oh! Wait, let me dig out my notes…” Piper said excitedly.

“No…that’s not...” Piper stilled, looking expectant. “Yeah ok, I guess I might as well.” Nora said almost with a grin, watching Piper rifle though her shoulder pack for her steno pad and pencil.

“Good! Let’s get down to business. So, I know you’re from a vault. How would you describe your time on the inside?” Piper asked as she licked the tip of her ballpoint pen and began to scribble notes in shorthand. _Just like Ellie – odd skill to survive the end of the world_.

“Ah, yeah, that’s what I wanted to talk about. I wasn’t there for long. Vault 111 is…was a cryo facility. I was in cold storage. I didn’t see much of anything. To me it felt like a few hours maybe; that’s it.”

“Wait.” Piper’s scribbling stopped abruptly. She took a second to continue. “They boxed you up in the fridge? The whole time?” She asked haltingly.

Nora nodded, looked down. “The _whole_ time.”

“Are you saying you were…alive before the war?”

“Original packaging and everything” Nora tried to joke, pulling on her lapels, but it sounded flat even to her own ears.

Piper gave her a look of complete and utter disbelief. “Are you telling me you saw everything before they blasted it into tiny pieces? That you’re… _over two hundred years old_?”

“Hard to believe?”

“Ha, yeah Blue.” Piper stuttered, her pen still frozen to her notepad. “Hard to believe.”

“Harder to believe than the fact that we just invaded a two-hundred year old military facility stepping through piles of destroy androids to recover a piece of brain from a mysterious mercenary that a mutt tracked halfway through the commonwealth so that we can relive his memories in virtual reality?”

“I…no, no, I see your point.” She paused thoughtfully. “Oh my god. The Woman Out Of Time.” She had barely whispered it, but it echoed in the tiny room. _Well if I have to be a headline I might as well be a damn good one._

“So, your son…”

“Vintage pre-war just like his momma.” Her voice was hard but also kind of…proud. “If the Institute wants him, that’s why.”

The interview went on for a while actually; it seemed that Piper was not at a loss for questions to ask. They talked about Sanctuary, and Concord, and even a little before the war. Piper was just damn easy to talk to. _Guess that’s how you get a paper off the ground in a goddamn apocalypse._ And it felt good. Really _good_ , just to talk about it. When she told the story, it seemed like something she’d done instead of something that was just done to her. Saying it all over again solidified it in her mind; it made the ghosts seem to disappear.

“Wow, Blue. This is…wow. You said some surprisingly inspired things. I mean it. I’ll need a few days in Diamond City when we get back to print it up.”

Nora nodded, getting up.

“Ah, actually, I have one more question, Blue. Off the record.”

“Hm? Ok, shoot.”

“If you were in cryo when Shaun was taken, there’s no way for you to know for sure how much time had passed between when Kellogg took him and when you got out, right? Even if it only felt like minutes it had to have been a few hours, and it could’ve been longer. That’s why you asked about the boy with Kellogg, wasn’t it?” Piper was clearly choosing her words _very_ carefully.

Nora looked blankly back at her. “Yeah.” Nora said, still and pale. “But it couldn’t have been him. It felt like I just closed my eyes and opened them back up. It couldn’t have been more than a few hours....” Nora shook her head. “It’s just not possible. It couldn’t have been ten years. Kellogg looked exactly the same as he did in the vault. He hadn’t aged, _at all_. ”

Piper nodded in reply. She didn’t say _but his augmentations_ or _how could you tell the difference between hours and years in cryo_ or even _maybe it was a synth copy that took Shaun_ or any of the million thoughts flying through her head. She’d hold on to them for now; Blue didn’t need to carry that weight. She knew Blue wasn’t stupid, she just needed to protect herself.

“We’ll find him, Blue.” Piper said decisively. “We’ll find him.”


	7. Beantown Bildungsroman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two chapter update because this one is a bit hard on Nora and I didn't want to leave you guys on that depressing note.

Nora sat deep into the cool vinyl seat of the memory pod, feeling as though she were nestling into an artificial egg.

She recalled seeing the Brotherhood of Steel, hard and hollow, kill ghouls just that morning on her way to Goodneighbor.

Dr. Amari placed the contacts into her eyes and electronic nodes at her temples.

She recalled talking with Piper in the morning for hours, learning about the Brotherhood, asking about the Railroad and the Minutemen and anything she could think of.

She willed herself relax. Nothing she was going to see would be real. She was in less danger here than almost anywhere in the Commonwealth, being looked over by both Piper and Amari, and kind of even by Nick.

She recalled meeting the mayor, Hancock, his eyes just as black and dead as any ghoul’s, but looking at him was a little easier. She thought hard about it. Anything to not be here.

But still her palms were clammy and her mouth was dry. And when the video feed sparked up, and she felt her body move in _his_ memories, oh, the reality was worse than all her fears.

She relived it. All of it, from _his_ side, from behind _his_ eyes. His voice wormed into him. What were those words of his? _I find myself almost…liking you._

_And Shaun was 10. Not hers anymore – not her baby. Her baby was gone._

She came out of the simulation and pitched to the side of the pod and threw up, just bitter saliva and bile. She’d been in for almost 8 hours and nothing was left in her stomach.

Bleary eyed, she looked around the room, at her Pip Boy. Nick, already gone; Dr. Amari, looking tired, though not nearly as tired as Nora felt.

And Piper. _Piper? She’d stayed this whole time?_

Dr. Amari handed her a tumbler of water to stop her coughing and, while sipping, Nora sputtered. “Hey, Piper.”

“Hey Blue.” She had seen everything on the monitor. They both had. “You look like you could use a pick-me-up.” Piper extended her hand to Nora, a single colored gumdrop in her palm. Nora took it without protest.

And she began to cry. _God fucking dammit, hold it together. Not here, not in front of them._

Nora was shaking with her sobs, still leaning over the side of the pod, closing her eyes so tight her whole body hurt. She felt someone crouch near her, heard the click of her water glass on the ground. When she looked up through wet red eyes she saw Piper, on her knees at the edge of the pod. One of her hands came up to Nora’s shoulder and before she knew it she was in an embrace, soft and tentative. Piper didn’t say a word, she just held her arms around Nora, kneeling on the hard floor in what was certainly an uncomfortable position. Even Dr. Amari’s hand reached out to Nora’s shoulder before she retreated to check on Nick.

“I…I…he’s ten. He’s gone. He’s gone.” Nora sputtered aimlessly. It was like every moment Nora felt emotionless – killing Raiders, killing Kellogg, sawing his head off in her bloody hands – was crashing back down on her.

Piper just held her. Nora though she might’ve been whispering but she couldn’t be sure over the sound of her crying. Piper proffered water and waited, sorrowful. Nora could see in her eyes that what the monitor had shown said it all.

When Nora could finally breathe again it was 3:28am and she still had a hell of a time holding a conversation with Dr. Amari. Something about Brian Virgil – the Glowing Sea – her mind was a jumble. Hopefully Nick and Piper could catch her up later. For now Nora would sleep, some hotel she didn’t care about, atop a sheetless twin mattress on a California King frame, the other twin pulled down to the ground for Piper.


	8. Sing Me Something Fast and Sad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two chapter update; the last chapter was a doozy so this chapter is all about Goodneighbor and the Third Rail, and Nora gets a little space to breathe.

Nora was going to drink.

It was a quarter to three in the afternoon and Nora had woken up alone, Piper no doubt out conducting unwanted interviews. Nora had stumbled out of bed and right into one of the most bizarre conversations of her life. As if they’re aren’t all now.

“I _am_ Vault-Tec!”

Still shaking off the strangeness of that encounter, Nora headed to the best and/or only bar in town to drink.

“We freaks gotta stick together! And the best way to stick together is to keep an eye out for what drives us apart, you feel me?” A booming voice from overhead snapped Nora back; it was Hancock, leaning out over the balcony of the Old State House, addressing the most disorganized body of constituents Nora had ever seen. They shouted back up to him as his spoke.

“The Institute, they’re the real enemy! Not the Raiders, not the Super Mutants, not even those tools over in Diamond City!” More interjections from the crowd – _guess they don’t like McDonough anywhere._ “Now, I want everyone to keep the Institute in –”

Shots rang out in the street behind Nora, a quick and deafening two shot sequence followed by the short roar of a submachine gun.

She dove, had her pistol out before her shoulder hit the ground, and had already sighted the source of the skirmish: two neighborhood watchmen stood over a crumpled body, blood flowing from it in between the cobblestones. Hancock had disappeared from the balcony and was in the street in a second, the crowd parting, rubbernecking to see what had happened.

The dead man’s head was blown open, and though there was blood, there was metal too. Nora could see a mess of wires; the glint of steel. A component that looked like shattered glass. Watchmen were keeping the crowd back as Hancock walked up to the body.

“Would you look at this fucking shit.” Hancock started. “Good job boys, jets all around.” He raised his voice back up to mayoral volume. “When someone starts acting funny, when people are doing things they don’t normally do. When family starts pushing you away for no reason!” Hancock bellowed. _He’s like the tails to Piper’s heads._ “We all know who’s behind this kind of shit! And they only way to stop it is to stick together!”

The crowd began to shout back, excited, riled, and Nora holstered her gun and wove between them towards the bar. Now she really fucking needed a drink. She closed the door behind her just as chants of “For the people!” began to rise up accompanied by the sound of pistols being shot in the air.

-

The Third Rail was quite the party. A ghoul named Deegan got up in Nora’s space, demandingly offering a job, until she saw Piper and Nick sitting at the bar and hightailed it to safety. Nick was talking to a Mr. Handy with quite the Cockney accent while Piper was nursing a beer. _Guess I wasn’t the only one that needed a break._

“Hey there kiddo” Nick greeted her as she sat, the Mr. Handy floating off for her drink. “Quite the commotion outside. Celebration?”

“Hey Blue. Late morning?”

“They killed a synth. Right outside.” Nora said, still a little shocked.

Piper shot her a pleading look, a may-I-please-be-excused look, and it almost made Nora laugh because as much as Piper wanted to run out into the street for a soundbite, she was still looking after Nora’s sorry ass too. Nora nodded with a little quirked smile and Piper shot up and pelted outside, her steno pad in hand before her stool stopped spinning. Nick lit up a cigarette and shook his head.

Nora looked around while polishing off one and then another beer, reassuring Nick she was ok. A lounge singer with the stage name Magnolia performed on a corner stage, the house lights glinting off her red sequin dress. At some point she took a break, coming down to the bar and taking a seat on the left side of Nora just as Piper excitedly huffed back down from upstairs and sat on her right, madly flipping through pages of her notes. Nora stared into her beer

“What’s the matter sweetheart? Don’t tell me you didn’t like the song?” Magnolia asked in her smoked honey voice.

“I loved the song. It was perfect.” Nora found herself saying.

“Real great set this evening, ma’am. Of songs, that is!” Piper squeaked, turning absolutely fire engine red and burying her nose back in her notes. “It is warm in here?” She groaned in a near whisper.

Magnolia just chuckled kindly, evidently used to a few star-struck patrons. “Oh, thank you, Piper. A girl tries her best.” She turned back to Nora. “Now, there’s something special about you, isn’t there? Don’t tell me, let me guess….you’re a stranger around here.”

“Yeah, about as strange as they come.”

Magnolia gave another pleasant chuckle. “Well, maybe I can make you feel a little more welcome? If there’s anything I can do, let me know.”

Piper’s attention shot back to Magnolia, cheeks still red but eyes boring right through her. Nora couldn’t parse her expression.

“What about another song?”

“What would you like to hear, sweetheart?”

“Sing me something fast and sad.”

“…fast and sad. I think I can do that.” She finished her glass of water and walked back on stage. “This one is for our guest here. It’s _Baby, It’s Just You_.”

Piper jumped up again, grabbed Nick’s good hand, and pulled him out onto the dance floor with a “this is my song!” Nick, ruffled but gamely, followed.

Nick Valentine knew how to dance, no doubt about that. His trench coat swung with his movements as he spun Piper like a true gentleman, and Piper’s coat flared in time with their bodies. She looked like she was having so much damn fun out there, with that smile plastered to her face, her hips and shoulders moving with the music. She was good, that was clear, but she wasn’t the best in the room by any means. It was her happiness; it seemed infectious. She twirled around Nick easily, her movements competent and fluid. _Just like in a gunfight. Not a wasted step._

After the song Nick disappeared upstairs and Piper came back to Nora.

“How’re you doing, Blue?”

“I’m…I’m ok. I’m sorry about last night, I –”

“Don’t you dare. There’s nothing to be sorry about.” Piper paused. “Listen, I’ve got to go do something, ok. Sit tight, we’ll talk in a beer or so?”

Nora chuckled. “Yeah, sounds good reporter lady.”

“Who are you calling a _lady_?” Piper shot back in an effort to make Nora smile, and it worked. She walked off to resume her questioning of the locals. Nora caught a glimpse of her pinning some poor sap down about synths in Goodneighbor.

“So, what do you say about the mayor’s speech? Strong leadership or foolhardiness?”

“Hey, you’re that reporter from Diamond City, ain’t you? Look lady, I want to help you, I really do. But I haven’t eaten in two days and I’m barely getting paid to sweep this place as it is, so maybe after I get my hours in?”

The sound of the “interview” faded as Piper and her mark sat down in back. But Piper’s vacated seat wasn’t empty for long.

A short, wiry man with sharp features sidled up to the bar, ordered with a hand gesture, and sat next to Nora. “You look like you get shot at a lot.” He said amiably enough.

“Jesus Christ, everyone around here looking to hire a gun?”

He laughed. “You mean Charlie and Deegan? You’re smart to avoid those shit jobs. They’re for amateurs and pay like it. No, me? I’m a professional. And you look like you’re hiring, not working. Robert Joseph MacCready at your service.” Instead of offering a handshake he offered the neck of his beer and Nora clinked it skeptically. “That Wright girl with you, the reporter?”

“Yeah. Everyone seems to know her name here.”

“The ghouls love her around here. Even if she’s a fool.” He gestured towards her and Nora followed him. She was sitting with the man she had been talking to earlier, two huge plates of food in front of him, scribbling notes down as he talked with his mouth full. She’d bought the guy dinner. “Throwing away good caps on that idiot.”

“She’s…she knows the value of a good story.”

“Doesn’t know the value of a cap.”

“And I suppose you do.”

“For the right price, I can shoot anything at a hundred yards.”

“That’s quit the boast.”

“I’m good for it. Just ask around.”

“I’m really trying to stay out of the gunfire lately.”

“Suit yourself vaultie. My fee is fair, so if want to survive up here on the surface for long, you know where to come.”

As he stood to get up Nora quirked her head. “Do you….are you trained to use Power Armor?”

“Damn straight I am. Those Gunners that were here earlier? Left with the commotion? Used to work with those assholes. If the Gunners gave me anything but nightmares, it was training on any weapon you’ve got. I’ve seen it all. Power Armor, I’m your man.”

“ _Man_? How old are you, anyway?” Nora poked at him with a cocked grin. _Looks like he can take it._

“Sticks and stones lady!” He sneered lightly, walking away.

Nora nodded, sipped her beer, and saluted him with two fingers as he left. She had the feeling she may just want to remember that.

But her thoughts were interrupted pleasantly as Piper came to sit back down, rifling through a new twenty pages of notes, clearly proud of herself.

“You get the scoop?”

“And then some, Blue. But maybe, just for a day, the press can wait on this one. Tell me about how you’re doing.”


	9. Strange Little Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to two-chapter updates from now on; updates might be farther apart but I think my chapters are going to continue to be short so hopefully doing two chapters at once will balance out the short format.
> 
> In this chapter, Nora finally has a second to breathe.

The morning sun was bright and sharp; it was as damned near as dry as it ever got in Boston. Without Nick, who was researching a case up north, and Piper, who was locked in her loft turning sugar and caffeine into the next headline, Nora was wandering.

It was funny. She hadn’t had the chance to just wander. Every moment of every day since she woke up was directed, urgent, unforgiving.

But now; Shaun was nearly grown. Her own son, the son of another family, calling a stranger “Father.” And Nora wanted him back so badly. _So badly_. But even if she could find him now, as good as a million miles away, it wouldn’t be the same.

Some tiny bit of her, way back inside, was almost relieved. That it wasn’t her failing; that she hadn’t failed because she never could have succeeded. It made her nauseous thinking about it. _Fucking terrible mother._

When they got back from Goodneighbor, Piper and Nick had both told her to rest. The urgency burning in her heart had turned to heartburn, and she was deflated and tired and lost. So she wandered the streets of Diamond City with a bitter cup of “coffee” in her hand, missing Dogmeat.

She had never really noticed this place. Really, really _looked_ around. It was full of strange little things.

The Power Noodles reactor must’ve been nuclear, and, as far as Nora could tell, that and the water purifiers were what anchored this place on the planet. There was an orchard, a greenhouse and Brahmin, outside of which a little shanty town clung, dirty mattresses under low-slung burlap tents. The luckier lower-stand residents like the Wrights had rusted sheet metal shacks or repurposed trailers, piled precariously on top of one another in every direction but west, which was a crumbling ruin.

Guards roamed even there, on shifts of what Nora guessed were 4 hours apiece, 24 hours a day. The number of guards and their reach past the gates indicated to Nora that there where hundreds of them, maybe more – possibly half the adult population here worked in defense, and if Nora had to guess, more than a thousand residents huddled behind the wall each night.

The residents of Diamond City were just as fascinating to watch as the workings of the city itself. What struck her the most was how few differences there were between genders when it came to how people took care of themselves. Mostly men and women dressed the same; it seemed to be the fashion to mix and match pre-war and post-war pieces, denim and leather and armor and other strange flourishes like fishing net or rivets. Men seemed to take special pride in their facial hair, and being completely clean-shaven was rare, but few women wore much makeup and then mostly just the upper-standers. She did notice face paint on some of the women, eye black or darkening of the eyebrows or just decorative lines or dots. Nora wondered if that was the style in Diamond City or if it was more popular with travelers and caravans.

How many of them were caravans passing through, Nora couldn’t know, but quite a few were children. Enough, she was noticing now, that the school must separate them by ages. There must’ve been hundreds of kids, and some, the ones clearly without families, could be found huddling beside the greenhouse each night. Walking by, Nora noticed their little bedrolls and curtains were stitched partially out of past issues of the Publick.

_Why do I have the feeling those were donated?_

It was also the first time Nora noticed the bathroom situation. Of course she’d used the public bath houses, which even had a paid system for hot water – but she never noticed how the lines around the free stalls were always long, people bathing but also doing laundry or getting buckets of water to boil. It occurred to her that Piper was proud of her little washroom because it wasn’t the norm – most people didn’t have running water here, except maybe the upper stands. Like the printing presses, she’d probably put more elbow grease into it than she was liable to admit.

In comparison to the rest of Diamond City, the upper stands loomed over the field clean and pristine. It was a relatively small area, maybe the size of one quadrant of the lower stands, but it looked like it drew twice the power. The mayor’s office, lift in use at this exact moment, was its crowning jewel.

Nora was starting to hate the guy as much as Piper did.

She noticed how the streets were laid out and named – _along the bases, cute_ – and how people here spent their money, which was mostly on food.

Oh, food. The food was so different. Old-world cuisine in comparison was bland as hell. Here everything was salty, spicy, sweet, and intense in flavor. It was almost enough to give Nora an appetite. Now _that_ was something she hadn’t had since waking up. Whether it was the cryo sickness or her poor immune system or her constant nagging ulcerous worries, Nora hadn’t been eating well; she might’ve lost 15lbs at a conservative estimate. Her frame and face thinned out and she put quite a bit of muscle on in the last little bit, even noticing the post-pregnancy softness in her belly starting to tighten back up a little, and certainly the cleaner diet had a lot to do with that despite her occasional Nuka Cola. Soda, and old-world cuisine in general, was still fairly rare.

Mostly people ate grains – razorgrain and corn – in a hundred different variations. Meat was gamey and fruits and vegetables, what little there was anyway, all had a bit of a rad bite to them. It was an acquired taste, maybe. The noodles were the worst offender. They practically sparked in your mouth, but god were they tasty.

Sitting at Takahashi’s counter with a bowl in front of her, Nora could start to take it in. Barely, but she could just start. Maybe, when she got Shaun back, he could finish growing up in a place like this.


	10. View from the Vault

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Second of the two-chapter update.
> 
> Piper publishes her story of the century; Nora starts seeming a little more like herself.

Walking down to Publick Occurrences, Nora almost felt human again. She was well-rested for the first time in her life it seemed; she felt almost like she wasn’t quite a stranger anymore. Nat stood in her usual spot on the soap box, waving an issue in the air.

“Hey Lady! That story Piper wrote about you is selling faster than we can print! Is it true? You’re really from the past? What was it like? Did you see the bombs drop? Did you -?”

She was cut off by Piper, scooping her up and off the soap box from behind in a half-hug/half-noogie. “Hey-y kiddo, give her time to breathe in between questions. Pace the interview, remember?” Piper said, setting her back down when Nat started to kick her legs.

“Ugh, Piper!” Nat straightened her coat and looked back up to Nora. “Is it true, lady?” Her big saucer eyes, the exact same hazel color as Piper’s, were hopeful and full of wonder.

Nora leaned down. “Every word.” She took the paper out of Nat’s hand and stuffed her pocket with more bottlecaps than it cost. “But your sister didn’t tell you everything. Like how she saved my life on the way to Goodneighbor. Or how she got to see a whole facility of Institute Synths.”

Nat’s eyes got impossibly wider, and she turned back to Piper who rolled her own eyes and smiled at Nora. “Seriously, sis?”

“I’ll tell you about it soon, Nat. Today is papers. Our biggest story ever!” Piper beamed and Nat beamed back. “I’m proud of you kiddo, we did good.” Piper ruffled her hair as she walked past her and towards Nora. “It was, our biggest story, I mean. It has everything, the Institute, a missing person, Nick Valentine, a gunfight –”

“An avenging parent?” Nora said, nicely actually but Piper still faltered.

“Uh, yeah, sorry about that, Blue. I should’ve…I...”

“No, I’m glad you’re sharing the story. I want you to.”

“It’ll help find him. The more people know him, and you, the better our chances are.” _Our?_ “Ah, anyway, look, usually I’d do a little wrap party at the Dugout, but since the poisonings…”

“The what?”

“We do a little get-together at my place now. Just us and Nick and Ellie. Maybe Arturo and some of the kids. Would you want to…would you want to come by?”

Nora smiled full-on, bright in the sunlight. “Yeah, I’d like that. I was thinking I’d head up to Sanctuary tomorrow to get Dogmeat and drop off some supplies. I sent Sheff and…an old friend up there not too long ago, I thought I’d check on them. And I think I might have an idea about the Glowing Sea.”

That piqued Piper’s interest.

“You’re welcome to come, if you’d like. The Concord Five have quite a few headlines between them, I think.”

“Yeah! Um, I mean, of course. If it’s not trouble.”

“I’d rather not travel alone. And besides, I kind of want to show you the place.”

Piper nodded, almost tentative. “You know, Blue?”

“Hm?”

“You seem more like yourself lately. I mean, is that weird to say? Since I didn’t know you before? You just seem more…more Nora. I guess.” Piper fiddled with her fingerless gloves.

“No, it’s not weird. I think I am more myself lately. I know it’s terrible to think that way, that just because Shaun is ten I kind of have more time? To find him or something, I don’t know.”

“It’s not terrible, Blue. At the pace you were going it’s…don’t feel bad, being a human. What do I keep saying?”

“We’ll find him.”

“We will.”

-

The evening was the most pleasant Nora could remember since waking up. She got an earful from both Wright sisters but had to admit, they were anything but boring. Even embarrassing herself in charades was kind of fun.


	11. Silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A gunfight that ends up being a bit hard on Piper

The next morning they set out North, picking their way through ruins now almost familiar to Nora.

“So, Piper, I got a question.”

“Shoot, Blue.”

“Why is Polly so damn adamant that she only sells meat? Like, what, was this a problem for her in the past? Was the citizenry lining up at her booth for medical advice and ammunition?”

Piper was silent; never a good sign. Nora looked back to find her blushing.

“Um, what?”

“No, no, nothing.” Piper hedged. “No one told you? Of course no one told you.”

“What?”

“Ok, no big deal. You had a kid, you had sex. Presumably. I mean, I – wha –”

“It’s a sex thing?”

“No! Well, ugh.” She was talking with her hands now. “It’s kind of a code phrase around here. Polly is Diamond City’s…adult purveyor. Not just sex stuff! Birth control and period supplies and everything. If someone is selling ‘only meat’ and you ask to see their ‘only meat’…”

“I’ll get to see the back room?” Nora chuckled. “That sound like a terrible code phrase for a sex sh-”

Piper whipped her head around, interrupting her abruptly with a single hand up. “Raiders, 11 o’clock. Don’t move.” Both women crouched low.

“Where’d that bitch go?” A stranger’s voice echoed down the alleyway.

“Shit! They’re already on top of us.” Piper whispered; she already had her pistol out, and now so did Nora.

It all happened in a flash. Four rapid shots pinged off the fire escape over Nora’s shoulder and both women ducked, scattering for cover. Three more into the ancient brick of the building behind them, billowing dust, and then Nora could see it: off down the alley to the right was some kind of makeshift blockade. Two limbless bodies on hooks warned of danger _. How could I miss that?_

One above her, two down the alley and a final one flanking them from inside a building; he must’ve been the one shooting.

Piper had found cover already and disappeared behind it; Nora moved low to the ground, banging off four shots of her own at her only clear target. One figure near the blockade crumpled on a ruptured knee and fell into the dirt.

The loud report of Piper’s gun came suddenly from behind, bullets taking chunks out of the brick wall framing the windows that their flanker was shooting out of. Misses.

“Damn, come out!”

Nora aimed and shot above, missing two shots on the Raider on the roof before hitting her square in the chest. She fell forward onto the fire escape and then slid off it another two stories, hitting the dusty earth with a sickening wet smack.

Piper was using the distraction already; she darted into the building, and Nora wanted to yell out after her but knew better. Instead she popped up, firing the rest of her clip blindly into the nearest window for cover and –

A force like a truck smashing into her bowled her over. One shotgun slug to her collarbone, deeply denting her armor and putting her on her ass and she was out of bullets and the Raider was going to be at the window in a second and -

One sharp gunshot. Another, echoing in the building, and then silence.

“Blue?” Piper’s voice, still thin with panic, called out.

“Y-yeah. Shot. Three.” As in, three out of five. Something broken, but not fatally.

Piper rushed back out into the street, pieing the area efficiently before turning to Nora and crouching down. “Last one ran off. We still need to get out of here. Three?”

Nora nodded, already pulling out a Stimpack. Piper took it from her and prepped it while Nora disengaged her metal chest piece. _Thank god for that heavy-ass plate of lead._

When the needle was in her she had the unsettling sensation of her collarbone floating back into place and knitting back together with the bones there. It made her shiver from head to toe.

When she could, she stood and walked with Piper back into the building. The body of the raider who shot her laid face-down on the stairs. Piper reached out to flip him over, scrounging for loose caps and ammunition.

The boy must’ve been no older than 14; younger even maybe. His eyes were still open, bloodshot and set in dark sockets that Nora knew enough to identify as the signs of Psycho addiction. Nora hitched her breath. But Piper just stood there, frozen in silence, for long heartbeats before holstering her gun at her back, turning towards the door, and waking out. Nora could see that her cheeks were wet and her eyes were rimmed with red.

“Piper, it’s not –”

She held up her hand stiffly. There was a long silence.

“He’s barely older than Nat” she choked out finally.

Nora didn’t know what to say. She walked over to the body, kneeled down, and passed her hand over his face to ease his eyes closed. Carefully she unfolded his handkerchief and placed it over his face.

Piper gave a single choked sob and turned around. “We have to go.”

Nora had the impulse to reach out to her, but she stopped herself; she understood. She’d give Piper what she needed even if it was silence.

And they walked in silence all the way to Oberland.

-

The women there needed help, and Nora agreed absently, unable to focus on that or really on anything but Piper’s deafening silence.

“Hey, Piper.” Nora began as they left the railroad station with water and tatos for days. “I want to show you something.” Nora veered them only a little off course, to a long train wreck, cars tipped here and there, their contents spilled or destroyed.

“Here.” Nora pointed. A steel cage train car, one still working terminal attached but locked tight. Piper peered through a slit in the car on tiptoes and Nora knew she was seeing what Nora herself saw her first time past here. A set of Power Armor – far from complete, but with a Fusion Core and almost certainly still functional.

“I bet Nick could hack that terminal.” It was the first thing Piper had said other than niceties to the Oberlands.

“That’s what I’m hoping. If I’m going into the Glowing Sea I’m going to need backup. Ideally backup that won’t succumb to the radiation. I don’t want to bring Nick – it’s too dangerous, and he’s working that new case. But if I can find someone, this set…worn over a rad suit? Might do the trick.”

“You don’t want to take Nick? He’s immune to radiation.”

“He’s got his own life, I don’t want to drag him into this. Besides, if how you and Nick tell it is true, the Glowing Sea will chew up and spit out anyone who’s not in Power Armor anyway. I’d never let Nick go in his trench coat.”

Piper nodded, considering. “So, who else knows how to use Power Armor?”

“I’ve got an idea for that, too.”


	12. Sanctuary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora takes Piper to Sanctuary for the first time and reunites with Dogmeat; Nora makes an important decision about moving forward.

When Nora crested the hill to Sanctuary and saw Dogmeat already running down Old North Bridge towards her she fell to her knees in happiness. He bounded into her arms, licking her face and prancing about excitedly, and she couldn’t stop scratching his ears and saying “good boy” over and over. When she finally looked back up to Piper, the reporter had a soft, affectionate expression.

“Hey boy. Your friend here missed you.” He bounded over to Piper and she happily obliged with pets.

As the trio walked into Sanctuary proper, it seemed like everyone was coming out to greet them. The Concord Five, and Codsworth, and even Sheffield (Piper had a shock seeing him here) and Vault-Tec.

Codsworth whirred a hello to Piper, spinning around and offering her a fresh beverage to recover from her travels, and Piper just exploded with questions for him when she realized he was Nora’s butler from _before_.

Preston and Sturges shook hands enthusiastically with Piper and the Longs were distant but civil – even Mama Murphy left her chair to greet the new visitor, hugging her and whispering something in Piper’s ear that made her eyes go wide.

Sheffield was his old weird self but it was clear he was happy to see a familiar face. When he slumped away, Piper half-mouthed to Nora. “You got him on his feet, Blue?” and Nora whispered back “He did that himself, he just needed a place to go. Same as this guy.”

Vault-Tec walked up, reached out his hand to Nora and said “You kept your promise!”

Nora for all her life tried to keep the smile from sliding off her face. When his crepe-like, sloughing skin touched hers all her insides shrank away but she shook his hand firmly and politely as well as she could and he didn’t seem to notice her reaction. But Piper did.

And when Piper realized who he was she nearly had a stroke. She’d been jotting down one continuous line of shorthand since Codsworth floated into view and showed no signs of slowing.

Even unpacking into the house above Nora’s root cellar, or preparing for dinner, or sitting down to eat with the group, Piper never stopped with the questions. To their credit the Sanctuary residents were quite happy to talk, Codsworth especially, and Piper pretty quickly caught on to not bother Marcy so that wasn’t an issue. All night Nora watched her with a grin while visiting with the others, reliving through Piper all the wonder of this new world and none of the pain. She’d had enough pain.

It wasn’t until long after dinner that Nora even had a proper chance to talk to Piper again. Nora was sitting at the cooking fire out near the old playground with a Gwinnet Stout in one hand when Piper wearily wandered up to her and sat so she leaned partially against Nora’s shin.

“Tuckered out from a hard day of interviews, huh Pipes?” _When did she started calling me Pipes?_ the reporter wondered.

“I can’t believe this place, Blue. You really lived here?”

“Yeah, I did. When I found out the others were all headed here too, I figured it was a sign. Mama Murphy told me I’m ‘tied to this place.’ She’s right, though. I’ve been thinking. I…tomorrow I’m going to bury my husband.”

“What?” Piper asked softly.

“The vault isn’t far from here. He’s still…I’m going to ask Preston and Sturges for help. To bring him down. I think I need to do it. I think he would’ve wanted a real….a real funeral.”

Piper looked up from where she sat. “Blue, I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

“No,” Nora shook her head. “No, but thank you. Maybe tomorrow there will be things that need doing.”

“Whatever you need.”

Some silence passed before Nora got up off the cinderblocks she was perched on and sat down against them next to Piper. It had always struck the reporter as odd how much Nora talked about Shaun but never about Nate. Maybe one day she’d get the story on that one, too.

“What did Mama Murphy say to you, anyway? You looked like you’d seen a ghost.”

A shadow of that look passed over Piper’s face again. “It was the weirdest thing, Nora. I know you joked about her being psychic or something but…it was…strange.” Piper paused, searching her pockets for a loose cigarette, Nora waiting patiently. “She told me nobody was ok, and that I shouldn’t worry so much.’”

“Huh?”

“’Nobody’ was what I used to call Nat when we were younger. You know, Nat-a-lie, No-bod-y. I was like 12 when I made it up, don’t look at me like that! It did work pretty well there for a while, when she was in the peek-a-boo phase. ‘What’s that I hear? Oh, it’s Nobody…’ – that sort of thing.” Nora could imagine the Wright sisters playing as children, a bossy Piper teasing Nat between taking care of her. Whenever Nora imagined them younger, it was in a living room with a nice television and a car out back and even though Nora knew their childhood was a far cry from hers she let herself pretend.

“Is she right, about you worrying?”

Piper gave a single bitter chuckle and lit her cigarette in the lee of her hand. “I know I don’t act like it, being away so much. But yeah, of course I worry Blue. She’s the most important thing to me. She’s all I’ve got except the paper. I know I’m not her mom, but I don’t make her life a whole lot easier with my choice of profession.”

Nora nodded and sipped her beer while Piper took a deep drag and breathed slowly out into the still night air.

“You set good example, though.” Nora started slowly, thoughtfully. “I was thinking. Of all the people I’ve met since…I woke up…you’re the only one that helped me for no reason.”

“Huh?”

“Even everyone here, they saved my life, yeah, but I saved theirs first. Valentine worked my case for free – after I went and got him from Vault 114. Even Codsworth needed fixing first. But you, you just helped me. I didn’t do anything to deserve that.”

Piper looked a little baffled. Her cigarette hung between her fingers. “You…you brought Nicky back. He’s…I don’t have too many friends these days. And, well, you did have a great story.”

“Yeah, I’m not buying it Piper. You didn’t help me for the story. You were out with me on my six before I even did the interview. I’m just saying, I really appreciate it. I don’t really know what I did to deserve it, but thank you.”

“You don’t know what you did, huh? You, the vault dweller always on her best behavior?”

Nora grinned and finished her beer “I didn’t realized I had been.”

Their conversation continued well into the night, Piper telling her about Mayburn and her dad and not even trying to keep the sadness out of her voice. Not with Blue.

At some point Nora asked her how she could be so happy even after losing both her parents. Piper said exactly what Nora might’ve thought, although it was the last thing she wanted to hear.

“Time.”


	13. Nate Wells

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/2 of the update
> 
> Nora buries some of her past.

They buried him out back of Nora’s old house. She hadn’t said it was her house, but she’d asked Piper to board up the doors and windows in the morning to keep animals out and that’s when Piper had seen a ruined nursery through a crack in the wall, crib still standing.

Nora had dug his grave herself.

As the boys brought his body down the hill and Piper and Codsworth boarded up the last window, Mama Murphy painted neat letters onto an old slate garden tile.

> _Nate Wells_
> 
> _2046 – 2287_
> 
> _Loving father_

Preston had said a few words, generic but kind, and everyone thought that was the end of it until Nora spoke up.

“Nate.”

They all froze, silent, waiting.

“I didn’t do the best by you in the end.” She continued slowly, almost quietly. “But you were a good husband, and a good father. You were an amazing father. I wish you could see the world now. I wish it was you instead of me sometimes. I think it might be easier for you. I guess I want everyone to know how courageous you were. That you died protecting our son. I’m going to find him, Nate. I’ll tell him all about you.”

She sat down near the grave, tears unfallen, while the others slowly dispersed.

All day she sat there, while Sanctuary turned around her.

It was only November 16th, 2287. It had not been even a month since Nora had lost her family.


	14. Game Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2/2 of the update
> 
> Nora has some important words with both the Wright sisters.

“Radstag!”

“Brahmin!”

“Brahmin, eating Brahmin, steak and eggs!” Ellie shouted out and Nick stopped his gestures and touched the side of his nose.

“Always on point, Ellie.” He said genially.

“How’d you even get the eggs part?” Piper whined playfully, chalking up another point to team Detective Agency.

Team Publick still lead by 3 points because the Wright sisters seemed to be able to read each other’s damn minds. Nora didn’t have a horse in this race since she was the charades swing-voter, guessing for both teams, but it was still a pretty great time. She was a little distracted still from Sanctuary, but this was good for her.

A few more rounds and Team Publick had amassed a large lead, and the night devolved into low conversation over drinks in the dim light of the Wright’s living room. Nat disappeared into her ‘room’ behind the printing press and Nora, only half-listening to the others discuss a case she hadn’t heard of before, decided to go see what she was up to.

“Oh, hey lady.” Nat said distractedly when Nora knocked on the cinderblock wall. “Why aren’t you out there with the grown-ups?”

“You seem pretty grown up. Didn’t feel like partying?”

“My radio show is on. Today Ryan is going to capture Johnnie the Boss!” Two voices crackled out over the radio, neither Travis’s – Diamond City had a few weekly shows and _The Adventures of Ryan Knight_ was one of the more popular ones.

“Mind if I join?”

“I guess it’s ok. As long as you don’t talk. I know Piper doesn’t even care about this show but I like it.”

Something about how she said it made Nora want to reassure her. “You know, Piper talks about you a lot when we’re travelling. She’s really proud of you.”

Nat made a psht sound and shook her head. “Yeah, whatever lady.”

Nora cocked her head, silent, letting Nat have some room. Eventually the girl continued.

“Next year I’m 13 and I get to do my apprenticeship year starting in the summer. In Diamond City when you turn 13 instead of your next year of school you work for someone in the city, to learn a job. Most people work for security or one of the vendors, like Mr. Rodriguez. But I wanted to do the paper.” Nat got introspective, dropping her voice. “I want to be a great writer, a reporter, like Piper. She doesn’t understand. She wouldn’t let me. She said I have to do something I don’t already know how to do. But I know she just doesn’t want me to work with her.”

The radio show had been forgotten. Nora scooted closer. “I think maybe she wants to make sure you can get a job if something happens to the paper.”

“The paper is doing great! We just sold our biggest issue.”

Nora nodded. “But even Piper has other skills. Didn’t she moonlight when you guys first moved here? She worked at Vadim’s, and with Abbott, and out in the greenhouse, before getting the paper up. And you know she could give most of the guards a run for their money with her pistol skills.”

“Yeah, I guess. It’s just not fair. What am I supposed to do?”

“Well, what do you _want_ to do? Other than the paper?”

“I don’t know. Nothing!” Nora nodded, waiting. “I guess, help people. Like you and Piper and Mr. Valentine do. Maybe I should do the guard. Ha, that would kill Piper.”

“Yeah, it would. Diamond City Security are good people, and they keep the city safe, but you know…what I do, it’s only about 10% shooting.”

“Really?”

Nora nodded seriously. She reached for her side arm, popped the magazine out, cleared the chamber and handed it to Nat. A shiver ran through her at the familiarity of the scene – an image she saw through a glass, darkly, once before. But she had to remember she had a point.

“ _Never_ point that at anything you wouldn’t mind killing. Even when you know it’s not loaded.”

“I _know_. Piper taught me how, just in case. But she didn’t like it. Neither did I.”

“Good. What do you feel when you hold that?”

“Nothing, I guess.”

“Right. That is just a piece of metal. It makes it easier to kill someone, but it doesn’t make it any easier to save anyone. It doesn’t make it harder to die, either. It can’t protect you. If I ever helped anyone, even once, it wasn’t with a gun. ” Nora took her piece back, slipped the magazine back in, and double-checked the safety. “If I ever helped anyone it with was with a hammer and nail.”

“Really?”

There was an unobtrusive knock from behind Nora. “Hey, Blue?” Piper called softly from behind cinderblock wall. Nat turned up the radio and Nora got up, touched Nat on the shoulder, and walked back out to the living room.

Nick and Ellie left, all genial hugs, and then it was just Piper and Blue.

“Listening to Nat complain about her tyrant of a sister who won’t let her apprentice at the paper?” Piper asked easily enough, gesturing to Nora to move out to the patio as she always did when she was smoking with Nat in the house.

“Something like that.”

The air was crisp and clear and already a little cool.

Piper sighed.

“You’re making the right decision, Piper.”

The reporter exhaled, nodding once and looking out over the city. She continued to speak without making eye contact.

“She needs something other than the paper. If something happens to the Publick…to me…”

“Piper, don’t.”

“No, Blue, I have to. I have to think about it. Nat’s got to be able to stay in the city. Even if she did take on the paper, it took me two years to be able to go full-time on it and still make rent.”

“I know. She knows. She just wants to be like her big sis.”

Piper laughed a short, bitter laugh and turned back to Nora. “I really wish she wouldn’t.”

“Who could blame her? Her sister is Piper Wright, Editor of Publick Occurrences. Champion of the little people.” Nora ended with a laugh, her eyes alight with the neon of the city, sparkling. Piper thought she looked beautiful like this, with the light in her eyes, a smile on her face.

Piper shook her head grinning, blowing smoke out between her lips into the cool night air. “Speaking of, still thinking of leaving tomorrow morning?”

“If MacCready hasn’t drunken himself into a hangover already, that’s the plan.”

 “Yeah, about that, Blue.” Nora quirked an eyebrow. “Look, Nick and I weren’t kidding about the Glowing Sea. You have to be more careful than you’ve ever been. Ever. Ok?”

“Ok.”

“Promise me.” Piper said, sounding almost fragile.

“I promise.”

When Nora left, Piper snubbed her cigarette out and hugged her softly. “You’ll find Virgil. He’s the next step, Blue. We’re getting closer.” Piper’s arms around her made her feel safer and stronger than the Power Armor ever did. She could do this.


	15. Mouth of the Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/2. Nora and MacCready venture into the Glowing Sea to find Virgil.

And Nora had thought the trip to Diamond City was hell. _Ha._

Nora stood in Power Armor at the edge of the Glowing Sea watching the earth belch yellow irradiated smoke out like the very mouth of the underworld, while overhead angry green lightning flashed threateningly to the baseline of a low and constant roll of thunder.

_This would be almost funny if I didn’t have to walk into it. It’s like a fucking cartoon nightmare._

“You ready, boss?”

“As I’ll ever be, MacCready.”

He had been a great choice. His fee was fair, he could handle the Power Armor that Nick had unlocked just south of Sanctuary, and he was just cocky enough to walk into this bullshit for caps. And, as horrible as it made her, Nora knew that in a pinch she could stand to watch him die. It’s why she hadn’t even considered Nick or Piper.

But she was actually warming up to him already. They had easily cleared out the Super Mutants that were troubling the Oberlands, MacCready sniping the Suicider from almost two hundred yards. They had found an old marina named Egret and had talked the crazy woman there down, watching her walk out into the wasteland with nothing but a pipe pistol muttering “do what you want with the place” as she left.

So they did. It had beds and water and was the perfect jumping off point for this.

 _This ridiculously bad idea._ Nora was having a hard time following MacCready. She was uncomfortable without Dogmeat and couldn’t reason to herself that she had a chance of finding Shaun if she just took a few more steps. That was her usual trick.

But she forged ahead, walking low and slow under the cover of the constant rolling storm.

And holy god was it the worst thing she’d ever done. As some point it dawned on her gently and without fanfare that she was standing at the precise spot of the nuclear detonation she’d seen from the lift of Vault 111, Nate and Shaun behind her, two hundred and ten years ago.

Nora wasn’t sure she had blood left in her body by the time she’d walked into that fucking cave, so far out into the nothingness that it wasn’t even on Nora’s Pip-Boy map – a place out of existence, a place wiped off the globe two hundred years ago, a place that was only the ghost of the void. It seemed like purgatory, and thank god because if it hadn’t she probably would’ve freaked out more at Virgil.

A Super Mutant wearing glasses. What the fuck else could she possible expect. Even MacCready was so doped up on the Med-X they’d had to use to treat poison that he barely gasped.

Even looking back Nora had no idea how they made it back to Egret. There was a Deathclaw, bigger than the last. There was a whole fucking political rally of ghouls. There were even three Gen 1s, the kind Kellogg had defending him, chattering and firing blue beams of death at her, tracking their target with dead eyes.

Nora had had enough.

They were on the half-lifted bridge just outside of Egret, and she was almost back, almost to a bed, coming at them from the high side of the bridge. She ran, chugging at them like a train engine, jumping off the high lip of the bridge and down to them with a shuttering earthquake Nora thought might drop her through the road. The Gen 1’s scattered then, and again under fire from MacCready up above, while Nora just tore them down.

She didn’t conserve her ammo. She didn’t use tactics. She just mowed them down seeing if she could get them to start a fucking electrical fire.

By the end they were in bits, and Nora did finally get to that bed.


	16. Hero's Welcome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Returning to Diamond City, our heroes meet up and make dick jokes.

Nora and MacCready walked into Diamond City like they owned the goddamn place.

Shopkeepers, children, caravaners and upper-standers all turned to look when they heard the pair’s heavy metal boots clang against the grated Diamond City Market Road.

Nat, hawking papers in the afternoon as always, stopped her pitch abruptly and stared. She didn’t even dart inside for Piper this time. Nora could guess why.

Both warriors glinted in the wan afternoon sun, which was reflected by only the barest remnants of Power Armor. Both frames showed through under every plate, still faintly throwing off a sickly yellow-green glow, little irradiated motes of dust trailing off them as they walked. Over MacCready’s shoulder was slung six or seven rifles, many of them Institute, on a rope and in his hand was a Super Mutant’s sledgehammer. Nora, though, was perhaps even more impressive.

In one hand she carried a rusty automatic blowback, a big mean gun that shot .45s like a train chugged down a railway; and in the other hand, she carried the giant severed hand of a Deathclaw.

Truth be told it was mostly for effect; it had come out of the travel pack just for this moment. Nora figured she’s suffered enough in the Glowing Sea; now she got to gloat that she survived it at all. And she could feel MacCready smiling in the warmth of attention, too.

When Nora lifted her helmet off, she shook out of hair, dropped her gear, and started to disengage her armor.

“We’re getting a hell of a welcome, boss. How much mileage do you think it’ll get me with Scarlett at the Dugout?”

“Just enough distance to interest her but not quite enough to impress her.” Came Nora’s easy answer. The last few days had her warming up to the stupid merc, and bandying with him was like being back in the Marines.

“Hoooh, you wound me boss. Care to measure up?” Mac said as Nora emerged from her armor.

“You and I both know I have the bigger –”

Nora was cut off by a flash of red leather colliding with her chest. Piper hugged her fiercely, her head tucked under Nora’s chin, hat knocked off into the dirt road.

Nora hugged her back strong and tight.

“P-Pipes. Hey.” Piper pulled back abruptly, all smiles, and Nora could feel a smile bloom across her own face despite the sudden terrible chill Piper had left in her wake.

“You actually did it, Blue.” Piper said almost incredulously. “I wasn’t….I didn’t know…I mean, wow, you really did it!” _Was Piper turning a little pink now?_ “I have to get an interview with you two!” She said, sparing a look at MacCready who was returning her hat. “No one has ever done that before. I can’t believe you did it.”

“Some reporter, Piper – you haven’t even asked us if we went. For all you know we could’ve been on vacation.” MacCready accused but not unkindly, as Piper thanked him for the hat with a smirk and a flourish as she put it back on. Her body was still so close to Nora’s and –

“Are you kidding? A vacation in a nuclear reactor maybe. You two are putting off so much heat I think the candy bar in my pocket melted.”

“Maybe you should give the ‘Woman Out Of Time’ over here some room to breathe.” MacCready poked mercilessly, hanging his shoulders and lighting up a cigarette.

Piper blushed just a little pinker. “Ah-ha! So you do read the Publick!”

“I gotta do something while I’m taking a shit. The problem is, I never quite finish a story before I’ve gotta wipe.”

“Oh that’s great, MacCready. I’ll save you the price of our next copy: local merc a good shot; still a dick.” Piper had heated up just a bit, banter less playful. _MacCready shouldn’t have mentioned the Publick…if he says anything about Nat I’ll be stopping a fistfight._

“Hey, can we get back to talking about how awesome I am?” Nora said playfully, diverting.

Piper grinned and rolled her eyes. “I don’t think I used that word, Blue. But I am impressed. Just one question.” She looked back to MacCready who was taking a drag, cheeks hollow. “Where’d you buy the Deathclaw hand?”

MacCready just exhaled through a knowing grin.

“Actually Pipes, that was more his kill than mine.” Nora said a little abashedly. The look on MacCready’s face could not have been more shit-eating.

“You mind saying that again, louder, at the Dugout?” MacCready joked, knowing Piper’s face was a sheet of disbelief.

“As a matter of fact, Mac, I wouldn’t. As long as you mention how I beat that Radscorpion to death with a baseball bat.” Piper’s eyes grew, if possible, even wider. “You head over, I’ll meet you there.”

The taller woman pulled the reporter close with an arm tossed around her shoulder and for the few minutes they walked like that to Publick Occurrences, Piper completely forgot her notes.


	17. She ONLY Sells Meat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/2
> 
> Chapter premise: sex shop brick joke.

“Ok, well, I’m going to make a quick market run. Nat, Blue, you think you can hold down the fort for half an hour?” It was Nora’s last night in Diamond City before the she planned on getting MacCready for a little light Courser hunting, and they were making the most of it with a quiet day at Piper’s place. Easier to not think too much about what lay ahead, that way.

“Sure Pipes” Nora responded without looking up from her game of Red Menace. It was Nat who stopped what she was doing.

“What, we’re not out of anything are we?” She asked looking up from her homework.

“No, well, I just wanted to see what Polly had in stock today…”

“Polly? You went to her stall on Friday! You didn’t eat all the meat again Piper did you –?”

Now Nora was paying attention. A sly knowing grin began to show on her face.

“What, no! I just…” Piper’s cheeks tinted a subtle shade of pink.

“Relax Nat, I bet Piper just has, you know. A _craving_.” Nora smirked deviously, watching Piper turn absolutely fire engine red.

“Whatever. Get more salt.” Nat, oblivious, was already turning back to studying.

“She ONLY sells meat Nat, remember?” Nora teased viciously before turning back to Piper and cheerfully waving her out the door. Piper’s face was already dipped so low her eyes were hidden by her hat, but her blush was definitely still visible as she turned with a consternated squeak and hurried out the door.

\--

Piper was back in twenty minutes, avoiding eye contact like a pro, a bundle of butcher paper under one arm that went straight into the ice box.

It wasn’t until Nat had gone down to sleep and the two women sat on the couch in peaceable silence nursing warm beers that Nora decided she wasn’t quite done teasing her favorite reporter.

“You going to tell me what you got at Polly’s, Pipes?” Nora asked cheerily, breaking the silence. Piper’s eyes widened perceptibly.

“Brahmin.” She said in a slightly squeakier voice than normal. “You cooked it for dinner. It was great by the way.”

“Brahmin was a cover! I won’t fall for your misdirection. What’d you _really_ get?”

“Absolutely none of your business!” Piper’s tone was playful despite her stern words. “If you want you know what she’s got so bad you should go over there tomorrow.” Piper dropped her voice to a whisper, so low Nora could barely hear. “You probably could really use it.”

“What?”

Piper didn’t know she’d been heard. There was genuine hurt in Nora’s tone and it made Piper feel ill inside.

“Ah, Blue, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean –“

“No, it’s fine.” Nora said cooly. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

“Aw, Blue, come on. I really didn’t mean to.”

“To what?” Nora’s voice was still icy but Piper pushed on.

“To imply that you needed to…you know. I can’t know what you feel like but I know it’s not just like you…you know…’get back in the saddle’ or anything.” As Piper stumbled over her words Nora felt her own expression begin to soften. “It was a stupid thing to say.”

“It’s ok Piper, really.” Nora said sincerely this time with a ghost of a smile. “Maybe I should.” Her tone had become introspective, almost sad. Her pale eyes glinted in the lamplight of Piper’s living room, throwing warm light towards the smaller woman.

Piper looked up, her beer freezing on the way to her lips, one eyebrow quirked up. She almost had to catch her breath.

“What do you mean?” She asked finally, breaking the spell.

“Just…I told you that I was thinking about leaving Nate, before. His death, in a way it does make it impossible to think about starting over again. Like it would be disrespectful to him, like it somehow tied me closer to him. But I have to remember that what I’m feeling now, I was feeling it before. Before everything. It’s not like I’m…forgetting about him.”

“What are you feeling?” Piper dared, voice low.

“Like maybe I need to be…open. To someone. I don’t know.” Nora’s voice had dropped subconsciously to match Piper’s and as a consequence both women had subtly moved towards one another on the couch.

“I bought a dirty holotape.” Piper deadpanned.

Nora burst out laughing.

“Sush! Quiet! Nat is going to hear you!” Piper admonished in a stage whisper, hands gesturing wildly. She couldn’t quiet keep a smile off her lips, though.

Nora continued to chuckle, head rolling back on the couch. “A dirty holotape?”

“It’s…part of a series. Someone in Diamond City writes them. Last month the story introduced a new couple…two women. So I thought, why the hell not? Not like I’m getting any real action.”

Nora’s chuckles faded slowly as she shook her head. “Yeah.” She took a sip of her beer. “You know, though, why not?”

“Hm?”

“Why aren’t you?”

Piper turned rosy again. “I…well…there aren’t a ton of options, Blue.” When Nora raised her eyebrows in a ‘please continue’ expression, Piper elaborated. “Well, there’s just Prof and Duff here in DC besides me –“

“That you know of.”

“The press always knows. Occasionally we get a caravan or a merc outfit travelling through. But…really Blue, what are the chances? There aren’t a ton of women around who are interested in other women. And even then, what, a one-night stand?” The reporter took a deep breath, deciding to continue. “I won’t lie, I’ve done it.” Piper paused, looking to Nora to see how badly she was being judged. Nora just sat quietly, listening. “Only human” Piper gestured to herself before taking another swig of beer.

“But you want something more.”

“Who doesn’t.”

The women sat again in silence, more tense than before. This time it was Piper who broke it.

“What about you, Blue?” Piper asked as she got up for another beer. “I mean, _if_ you were thinking about it. Anyone catch your eye?”

“So you can tease me? Interview them? Write an article?” Nora asked back with a grin, but it was only her phrasing that Piper heard. _Them_. Nora continued unphased as if she didn’t even know she’d done it.

“What about MacCready? I think he’s kind of into you.” Piper jabbed at the survivor, hiding her surprise with humor. Nora made a sour face.

“You think he’s a terrible person!”

“Yeah, I’m not making recommendations here Blue. I’m asking the hard questions. The press wants to know.”

“Mac, though? Really? Hell no. No, first of all he’s completely into _you_.” Nora pointed at Piper before reaching for another beer. “What’s he always asking you about – that ‘one-on-one interview’? Pssh” Piper and Nora both laughed at that. “And second of all, he’s SO unattractive.”

“What, really, you think so? I mean, I wouldn’t call him ugly.” Piper chuckled over the rim of her bottle.

“Should I tell him you said that?” Nora teased playfully, ducking a split-second afterwards to avoid the pack of cigarettes Piper had lobbed at her in retaliation.

“Don’t you dare, Blue! You’d give the poor man false hope.”

“He has like…this narrow weird face. It’s a rat face.” Piper stifled her laughed with her free hand, hoping not to wake Nat. “He has a rat face Piper. And he has terrible teeth. That right there is a deal-breaker. A nice set of teeth is very important. Look at your teeth, for instance. You’ve got a brilliant smile”

Piper, who had been smiling widely listening to Nora, felt her smile freeze unnaturally.

“Don’t talk about my teeth. Now I’m thinking about them! Do you know how awkward it is to be thinking about your teeth?” Piper said in a mock-stern voice. But something inside her was trembling. “Beside they’re crooked.”

“Psh, barely. It’s cute. And they’re white, you know, I don’t know how, with the amount of soda you suck down.”

“Hey Blue, gimme that pack of cigs back. I’ve got to throw it at you again.” Piper grinned out of the side of her mouth, reaching across Nora who batted her hand away.

“My point is, Pipes, no. MacCready would be a hard pass.”

“Preston?”

“What? No! I’d be better off romancing that mannequin outside Fallon’s.”

Piper did a double-take, total shock on her face, before dissolving completely into laughter. “Bllllue….that is the….harshest thing….I’ve ever heard.” Piper managed between fits of giggles, trying to keep it down for her sister.

“Well, it’s true. He’s the most boring person I’ve ever met.”

“He is, he really is boring, isn’t he?”

“Yes he is.”

“See, Piper, that’s why someone should be after you.” Nora turned the conversation back, laughter dying, voice odd.

“Oh, and why is that?” Piper played along, but something about the thread of this conversation had her heart beating faster.

“People might call you a lot of things…”

“You know they do.”

“But never boring.”

“That should go on my gravestone, probably. ‘Piper Wright, Diamond City, Never Boring.’”

Piper expected to at least get a weak chuckle for her efforts, but Nora was quiet. When she looked back over her beer at the survivor, she saw her staring back into her eyes with the oddest expression. Piper could’ve almost called it _interest_.

“Wha-What?” Piper asked trying very desperately not to blush.

“No, sorry. Just, it fits. It’s good.” Nora said, breaking her own spell. “I’ll toast to that.”

And they did.


	18. Everyone Has to Make It on Their Own

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2/2
> 
> A MacCready chapter, and the first we see of the Brotherhood. Nora kills a Courser.

MacCready laughed at lot at his boss; as far as he was concerned her strange and ancient providence was perfect fodder for a chuckle over a cigarette. He laughed at her when she wanted to shoot alongside the Brotherhood at Cambridge where they had all stumbled into ghouls on the way to CIT.

He laughed at her again when she teased that Paladin Danse about needing a civvy’s help, and then again later, walking back, when she told him she thought maybe there was something to the Brotherhood.

“Yeah, I used to think there was something to the Gunners, too.” He spat, laughter bitter.

“What happened with that, by the way?”

“Ah, they gave me a job I wouldn’t do. Killing some kid. They didn’t appreciate their best sniper walking off; been trying to get me back ever since. But I’m not going back. Group like that, it’s what’s wrong with the world. People have to understand that everyone is out for themselves.”

Nora nodded. She disagreed, but she could see where he was coming from. The Brotherhood seemed noble, but every sensible person she’d met had been wary of them. Nora suspected they were the kind of paramilitary organization that tended to crush the little people on their way to “law and order.” She’s seen it in the war, too, in China and Alaska. Hell, she’s seen it a hundred times in military law.

-

CIT was a slog for MacCready. The way he looked at some of the corpses – men they’d found dead, men they’d killed – Nora knew he had recognized a few of them. But he said nothing, and when it came down to it he did his job and saved her life, shooting the knees out of a guy with a missile launcher and forcing his shot to go wide, right into a cryo mine.

The resulting explosion may have permanently damaged her vision. It was still bleary and overexposed, even now.

They had hunted that Courser on the hot heels of every Gunner in the Commonwealth and when they finally found him it was seven bare words, words from Mama Murphy, words out of a dream, and he crumpled like a paper doll.

Nora and MacCready looked at each other and said nothing. They would never speak of this again. It was too strange.

Whether she was a psychic or a synth, at least she was on their side.

The chip popped out of the back of the Courser’s neck like a microfusion cell out of a laser musket, once the poor bastard had been reset. _Guess the Coursers are built a little different_ Nora mused as she turned the glass and steel device over in her hands as if she could figure it all out just by staring at the thing.

“I know you’re not here for me.” It was a woman’s voice; Nora and MacCready both whipped around, but no one was behind them. Two gagged Gunners and a dead synth. “But I can’t get out. Not on my own.”

_Where in the hell…?_

“Boss.” MacCready hoisted his rifle to point at the wall. Behind thick glass and steel blinds was a woman dressed in rags. She held her hands delicately together in front of her. Hopeful.

“I’m going to have to trust you to help me.”

She walked them through getting her out and Nora fully expected her to just bolt, but when the doors opened she turned back to Nora.

“Thank you. I don’t know what to say.”

“Who are you?”

“My…institute designation is K1-98. But I prefer Jenny. So yes, I’m a synth. If you hadn’t guessed already.”

MacCready raised his rifle in a heartbeat, shouting already.

“Mac. MAC! Stand down!” She grabbed the muzzle of his rifle and pulled it down. “Valentine’s a synth too, you know. Hear her out.”

“I knew they’d send a courser.” She paused. “Why did you help me?”

“We weren’t helping you, synth. We were just taking out the trash.”

“Mac, calm down. Jenny, right?” The woman meekly looked up at her name. The face she made told Nora no one had ever called her that before. “You need to leave.”

“Boss!”

“Mac, shut up. Jenny, take this.” Nora went for her pack with her free hand, grabbing for a pistol or something –

“No. Before you do that. I need to make it on my own or I’m dead. That’s what everyone says about the surface. Everyone has to make it on their own.”

“Take it.”

“No.” Jenny stood firm. Synths could be damn stubborn, Nora was finding out. She was just about to argue some more, throw her weight around, when she heard the deafening blast of a rifle shot from behind her. Mac’s gun. She swung around, pistol already up –

MacCready stood over a gunner, head half gone, hands still tied behind his back and twitching with the last nervous discharges of death. The tang of his urine filled the room. Nora was speechless.

Mac leaned down and cut the other one free.

“Carlson I swear to god if I hear your name again in my life I’ll do you like I did Rocklin. Get out!” Mac yelled at the guy, shot once into the wall over his shoulder, and watched him scramble for the stairs. “And don’t go back to the Gunners, they’ll do you worse than me!”

“Mac, what the fuck?”

“If you knew Rocklin you’d be thanking me. That job I got? He lived for shit like that.”

Jenny looked stricken; like she was considering the weapon now. But no, she went to scrounging by herself.

“And you know boss, you’re going to have to pick your fucking philosophy.”

“What?”

“The Brotherhood? Would’ve wasted this…Jenny…where she stood. And us if they found out what you just did. You can’t have it both ways. Make friends on opposing sides and one day you’re going to get crushed right in the fucking middle.”

“Isn’t that where you stand, Mac?”

“I stand on my own. Learn the difference.”

-

It turned out those two shots were the last MacCready felt like firing for a little while. Nora expected maybe the Glowing Sea and CIT had burned him out like they had her, but if that was the case Mac wouldn’t cop to it. He just said he was off the market for a few weeks and when Nora offered him a place in Sanctuary he shocked them both by accepting.

“We’re putting you in the Jahani house until we can look at getting another roof up.”

“Whatever works, boss. I won’t be here too long.” It sounded unconvincing to both of them. _Maybe_ _Sanctuary is what Mac needs. Being part of something, shooting at people for a cause_. “Time to settle up?”

“Yeah, I owe you a few caps, don’t I? Look, I had an idea. You’re kind of helping my friends out, even if it’s not for too long. What about we settle by you taking that Power Armor set?”

“What? Are you serious? That thing is worth a ton of caps!” But they both knew he didn’t need caps; their haul from CIT was the best either had ever seen, and Mac wasn’t in the habit of using it to buy Brahmin-loads of wood for Sanctuary.

“Yeah, well, it kind of feels like yours now. Maybe Sturges can help you finish the thing out. Just tell me you’ll shoot the heads off of any fuckers who try to raid the place.”

“You got it, Mungo.”

“What?”

“Ah, nothing. For a second you reminded me of someone.”

“I’ll see you around, Mac.”

“Yeah, maybe.”


	19. Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/2  
> tbh this is the chapter I am least happy with/struggled most on how to do. So if you have any advice or feedback for me I'd love to hear it. If you feel like I left something out or something didn't make sense, I can try to address it down the road.
> 
> thanks for reading btw, I hope you guys are enjoying it

The Wright’s washroom was half a crawl space shoved catawampus between Nat’s “room” and the stairs, but despite its size the sisters kept it relatively neat.

On the stairs side, a gravity flush toilet surrounded by stacks of misprints and old issues of the Publick. On the side with headroom, a standing sink with a half bar of soap and, above, an old medicine cabinet, the mirror for which was surprisingly intact, only missing chips of glass at the edges and along one single diagonal crack.

Nora couldn’t help herself; she opened the cabinet door with a creak and peaked inside. On the top shelf (Piper’s?) was a toothbrush and a roll of fishing line that it took Nora a second to realize was probably _floss_. There was a set of obviously post-war tweezers made out of what looked like a can of tomatoes and a bottle of what was probably asprin with only 3 or 4 tablets left.

The bottom shelf (Nat’s, presumably) was ever barer, with only half a tube of toothpaste – Dr. Sun’s own formula – a hairbrush, which, like the toothpaste, was obviously shared, and a paper packet of pills labeled VITAMINS in the Doctor’s messy scrawl but which Nora guessed a little grimly was Rad Away that Piper was herself foregoing for her sister’s sake.

A First Aid kit and a bottle of Bobrov Brother’s moonshine sat atop the cabinet out of Nat’s reach. Knowing Piper it probably got more use than the hairbrush.

And that was it – no makeup, no razor, no washcloth or lotion or lipstick. Nora knew, intellectually, that Piper or really any women of the Commonwealth, excepting perhaps the worst of the upper stands, did things like shave or apply makeup. Nora herself had given those up long ago and now satisfied herself with simply trying not to smell. And failed, most days, well by noon.

How different was her life before; how unrecognizable it would be to the Wright sisters.

Nora peered into the mirror. It had been so long since she’d seen her own reflection – really looked – that the woman she found staring back was like a stranger to her now. Her hair was cut shorter, and though it was cut with skill it had grown wiry and unruly without conditioner. Her cheeks were hollowed both by weight loss and stress; her skin had darkened and thinned under her eyes, showing a weariness she’d never seen herself wear before. And yet there was a new shining hardness to her eyes, a steely focus that looked at home in her steely blues.

She thought about looking into the mirror on October 23rd, with Nate behind her.

Today she wished it was Piper behind her.

Piper, sitting quietly ( _or sleeping? It must be midnight by now_ ) in her bedroom just above her now while Nora was supposed to be getting ready to leave for the Dugout. Piper. _Piper_.

Piper, who Nora could almost imagine coming up behind her, smiling that way she _always did_ just like she had a secret, something for Nora only, a secret look she gave her.

Piper could have smiled and put a hand on Nora’s shoulder, come closer –

 _Shit_.

Nora put her face in her hands, elbows propping her against the sink. One breath; barely a heartbeat. And she’d made her decision.

Nora swung the door open and marched straight up the stairs and into Piper’s room without so much as a knock. The reporter was indeed awake, night owl that she was; she was sitting on the bed cross-legged, reading a book and snacking on something in a colorful wrapper, no doubt sweet. When Nora hit her peripheral vision she looked up startled.

“I want to tell you about Nate.” Nora started. No preamble, not with Piper.

The reporter softened as she put the book aside. Nora could almost see inside – see her mind working, nimble and kind. She wanted to.

Piper gave Nora a look as placid as it was intrigued and scooted to the end of the bed to be closer to the taller woman, who sat in Piper’s wooden desk chair.

“Ok. I’m listening.” Piper said calmly, understanding at once. Something big was happening.

“And Shaun. And my mom and dad and my brothers. Everything.” Nora rambled. There was almost a desperation in her voice, an urgency to finally pitch off this weight. Piper nodded subtly, listening. Completely focused on Nora.

“Shaun was the most beautiful baby you’ve ever seen. He was eight months old and I think they were the best eight months of my life in a way. I had just stopped breastfeeding, mid-September. Having him, I can’t even describe it. I was really…giving life. He let me leave the military behind, he let me look at the future – our future. I…I miss him so much Piper. I think about him all the time. It was crazy how much of a person he was already. He had so much personality. He had these little habits, he’d always laugh if you sneezed. Especially if Nate did. He loved – I swear – anything red. Any toy, any blanket. I saw him cry because a red car we were driving behind pulled ahead once.”

Nora took a breath, steadying, moving ahead. Ahead, ahead.

“But I never think about Nate and it’s eating me up. My _husband_. When I see his face in my head I remember that my mother’s dead. My best friend. My boss, my brother, everyone. _Everyone_. I just, I can’t…” Nora started to cry, a real wracking sob, tears already falling heavily. It came at her like the leading edge of a storm: all of a sudden, like being pulled under the ocean, and here she was in the middle of it.

“Hey, hey, Blue.” Piper reached out and took both Nora’s hands in her own. Nora looked up at her with watery eyes. It was enough, to continue.

“Nate was such a good man. He was the best man I’d ever met. I was just never good enough for him. _To_ him, maybe. He…he loved me so much. He loved our family. And I did too. But…things were going wrong. I had started to pull away, I don’t know. Mom said it was just post-partum depression, that it’d go away, but it wasn’t and it wouldn’t. I could just tell. Something was really wrong with me. It was like I couldn’t feel him…I started worrying if I ever had. For the last few months it was like I was a ghost with him.” Nora sobbed out, all at once. _Jesus Christ it’s the fucking floodgates_. But Piper just slowly rubbed her thumb along Nora’s and stayed quiet and focused.

“I was going to leave him, Piper. I was already talking to a lawyer.” She had to stop to wipe her nose on her sleeve, pulling away her hands and then putting them right back again. “How fucked up is that? My husband died protecting our son. The last thing he said to me was that he loved me…. _and I couldn’t fucking say it back_.”

 _Well, it’s out then_.

Nora waited for God to strike her down.

She would’ve been less shocked at that than what happened.

Piper tightened her grip on Nora’s hands, wet where tears had fallen, and pulled the taller woman over to her. Nora felt lumbering and dull but she sat down next to Piper on the edge of the mattress and felt herself drawn into the reporter’s arms. They were warm and strong and felt so much bigger than they were, like Piper could hold all of her.

It wasn’t like any of the hugs before. It wasn’t playful or even flirtatious. It was loving.

“He was my best friend. He deserved so much more than someone who couldn’t feel anything. Who was broken.” Nora sobbed out quietly, so much more quietly now that she felt so safe.

“Hey.” Piper finally spoke up and when she did it was firm. “You are not broken. No, listen. Nora. What you’ve been through – it’s insane. But you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“That’s not true at all! I should’ve…been better for him. Loved him more.”

“How much do you love Shaun?”

Nora didn’t answer; her look said it all.

“Exactly. Shaun is half of him; Shaun is all the best parts of Nate, all the parts he was passing on, everything he wanted to protect. You loving Shaun like that is the best thing you could do for him. I know that if he can see you now he’s proud of you.”

Nora just cried harder. She squeezed Piper and Piper squeezed back.

“What if I can’t get him back? What if I do and all he wants is his other family? God, Piper, I know I don’t talk about it but I know the odds. I know that from the start it was a long shot. I know maybe the best I can hope for is to find out what happened to him. Jesus, I know.” She bowed her head to their intertwined hands, tears falling off her nose and onto their thumbs. Piper leaned back, halfway out of the hug, to lean forward again and press her lips into Nora’s hair. It was supposed to be soothing – maternal, maybe – but it made Piper reel with the intimacy and she pulled back.

“And my mom, god, my mom is dead. Dad, and James, my younger brother. They’re all dead, Piper.”

“Tell me about them.”

So Nora did. For hours and hours until the very first wan pink light of dawn was breaking and Nora realized what had happened. Her tears had long since dried and her chest felt, if possible, light. _Light_.

“God Piper, I’m so sorry. I kept you up all night.”

“Psh, don’t Blue. I see the sunrise a lot and it’s pretty much never by waking up to it.”

“I should go. We should sleep.”

Piper yawned, nodded. She felt like hugging the taller woman but they’d hugged a lot that night. She squeezed one hand, just once, and said very carefully, “You could stay here. On the couch?”

After that, Nora didn’t sleep at the Dugout much.


	20. Fucked the Likes o’ Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2/2  
> We meet Cait and if you squint hard enough there's some fluff there at the end
> 
> I always felt Piper and Cait knew each other from before, based on how they address each other when you trade them off. I ran with that, so this could be considered deviating from canon a bit.

“What do you think of this one Blue? Too mean? Not mean enough?” Piper twirled around to show off a rusty chest piece, bits of metal twisting off it at odd angles. Something a raider would wear – that was the idea.

“Why are we doing this again?” Nora asked through her bandana.

“We’ve got to look the part. I told you, this is just in and out. If the Combat Zone _has_ been taken over by raiders, the people need to know. It used to be a place travelers could rest, get a bed. If it’s dangerous…”

“ _If_ it’s dangerous? I thought you said you couldn’t pay a runner enough money to go check the place out.” Nora accused, wrapping a strip of stained cloth around her Pip-Boy to hide it.

“Yeah well, runners are a waste of caps anyway. And this is right on the way to Dr. Amari! You don’t have to come, but I’m telling you, it’ll take a few hours tops.”

Famous last words, it turned out.

-

The two women left Diamond City to some very judgmental looks from the guards, carrying about 10 extra pounds each of rusted metal that Nora couldn’t wait to ditch. Dogmeat trailed behind, ragged-looking. Nora had rubbed grease into his fur to make him look extra mangy and of course he absolutely loved it. He was rolling in something now. _Great_.

“Hey, Blue?” Piper had stopped.

“Hm?”

“I have to tell you something. About the Combat Zone. Why I want to go, I mean.”

“Ok? I thought this was for a story? Report on the state of the fight club?”

“Yeah, it is. It is. But…I think you should know. If you’re coming. I have a friend. Well, an old acquaintance. I haven’t seen her in a few years, but the last time I did, she was working the Combat Zone. I want the story, don’t get me wrong. But I wanted to check on her, too.”

“Ok. Why would that be a deal-breaker?”

“Oh! No, no, it wouldn’t, I mean. I just thought you should know. It’s a little personal. And if you don’t want to come…”

“I’m in it to win it, papergirl.” Nora braced her rifle in the crook of her arm and smiled.

-

“SHIT!” Piper yelled as bullets whizzed over their heads. A dozen angry raiders popped off their pipe rifle shots at the two women crouching behind an old poured concrete wall. Chucks of wood were flying in every direction; it was chaos.

“Everything was going well until your damn Pip-Boy went off!” Piper shouted over the din, shooting cover fire out over her head without looking.

Nora racked her rifle and shot a raider above them in the face. He tumbled back and fell off the catwalk gurgling. “How was I supposed to know I’d pick up a radio signal in this shithole, huh? Fucking Silver Shroud bullshit!” Nora volleyed back. “’In and out! Only a few hours!’” Her last words were drowned out by gunfire. A shot grazed Nora’s right arm and she sprung back.

“Yeah, if someone hadn’t blown our cover!” Piper yelled, making a break for the bar twenty feet forward.

Nora charged after her to find the bar already occupied. A huge man with a sack over his head reared up with a machete and came down over Piper’s head. It was only Nora’s last-ditch lunge that stopped him – she tumbled into his chest, both arms barely circling his wide middle, but she was moving enough to topple him backwards. His head snapped back against the ruined tile, stunning him just enough for Nora to get her pistol out, but he was already grabbing her hands, twisting them, his strength overpowering her –

Dogmeat vaulted the bar, teeth first, slashing at him, jaw locking around one arm while Nora put her pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger. A hot red spray of blood covered her face and neck and Dogmeat’s side. Just as she stood up she saw Piper do the same and an object fly through the air at them, alight, end over end –

She grabbed Piper’s coat, pulled her down, and covered her with her own body. The Molotov exploded against the bar counter with a plume of fire, and Nora could feel the heat sear her back.

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah, yeah. Zero.” _Zero out of five. Not hurt._ Dogmeat had already bounded across the room. “Thanks, Blue.” Nora nodded, laying down more cover fire from a crouch, hitting one and then another raider but not fatally. She saw two more running for the exit. _Hey, we might survive this._

“Oi! Piper, is that you!” A woman’s voice shouted out from near the stage. “You come here just to fuck everything up?”

“That your friend?” Nora asked sharply, reloading again.

Piper didn’t respond. She just palmed a pipe rifle, half-loaded, that she’d grabbed early on and tossed it to the woman. Nora could see her now over the bar – red, messy hair and huge shoulders covered with a splatter of freckles, or maybe dark blood. Possibly both. She caught the rifle, checked the chamber, and started firing.

It gave Nora just enough time to run upstairs. She stowed her pistol, grabbed her bat from her waist holster, and knocked one of the raider’s heads in just as she pointed her pistol Nora’s way. Another fell soon after. _Two more, maybe three, one on the left, one -_

And then Nora heard it. Piper screaming.

She jumped from the second floor catwalk down into the main space of the Combat Zone, not even thinking about cover. She bolted to where she had heard it, bullets pulling up the tiles behind her, Dogmeat at her flank now –

Piper was crouched down, one armed wrapped around her stomach, face a grimace of pain.

“Piper, Piper talk to me.” Nora begged. Nora knew things had to end fast. She took a grenade off her belt, pulled the pin with her teeth, and tossed it towards where two weapons had been firing.

The explosion rocked the building, toppling the makeshift wooden structure above it and crushing everything underneath it in a huge plume of dust.

“You, keep shooting!” Nora yelled at Piper’s friend deafly, barely hearing herself. She tossed her pistol to her, keeping her own rifle at the ready. “There might still be one out there. Signal if you see him!”

Nora whipped back to Piper.

“Piper, come on, I need you to talk.” Nora said trying to keep out the panic. Piper was on both knees now, arms wrapped around herself, face white and clammy.

“F-f-four.” She finally stuttered out. _Shit_. Nora flipped her chest pouch open, pulling a Stimpack and a Med-X out together. She popped the needle guards off, came around to Piper so she could reach the woman’s inner thigh, and stabbed them both in through her jeans without hesitation.

Piper cried out again, falling forward, but Nora’s arm was already around her from behind. When she realized that, she let herself ease into Nora’s arm and to the ground.

Nora was still depressing the plungers on the syringes, slowly and steadily. “It’s going to be ok, Piper. Don’t try to talk. It’s going to be fine.”

It was then she realized the shooting had stopped. Piper’s friend stood over them cradling the junk rifle.

“B-Blue. Better.”

“Good. It’s going to be fine. I need you to sip this for me. You don’t have to move.” Nora already had water out and brought the can up to Piper’s lips gently. The tremble in her fingers was subtle, and she hoped Piper hadn’t noticed.

It was long minutes of Nora holding her, gently stroking her hair, before Piper turned over, face still white and clammy but the pain already passing. Nora unbuckled that shitty raider chest piece, removing it incredibly gently, and saw not one but three bloody bullet holes in it. She tossed it away in disgust. Piper’s stomach underneath was a mess, but the flesh was knitting together and even though she’d have a hell of a scar, she’d be alright.

“Look good, doctor?” Piper asked with a weak smile.

“You’re going to be ok, Pipes. It’s going to be ok.” And then “You scared me Piper. You scared me so much, god.” Nora brought her forehead to Piper’s, lingering for a moment.

“How about y-you. You look like you killed a man with your face.”

Nora was about to come back at her when the other woman interrupted.

“What the fuckin’ hell?” She asked harshly in a thick Scottish brogue. “Come here just to die in fronta me?”

“C-Cait. Meet Nora. Nora, Cait.”

Nora turned to Cait as she wiped her face off, and the redhead nodded almost imperceptibly.

“You must be Piper’s old friend.”

“Old friend? The hell you telling people, Diamond City?” Cait said teasingly, turning back to Nora. “More like old one-night-stand!”

Nora went still. The look of her face was unreadable but frozen in place.

Cait barked out a harsh laugh. “Oi, Piper, I can’t tell if your friend here is more shocked you fuck women or that you fucked the likes o’ me!”

Nora couldn’t for the life of her turn around but she could maybe imagine what Piper’s face looked like at that exact moment. Maybe something like hers. Thank god someone shattered the silence.

But it wasn’t any of the three of them.

“Is it over? Well, that could’ve gone worse.” It was a ghoul _. In a suit_. Nora’s rifle had already trained itself on him but he had both hands up and that coif of his made it obvious he wasn’t the fighting type.

“Heh, I dunno, seemed like quite the performance from where I was standin’.” Cait interjected. Nora’s blood was just about boiling. The only thing keeping her from yelling was Piper; she was just trying to stand, using Nora’s left arm as a support.

“You fuckin’ high or something? Why am I asking, of course you are.”

“Was still winnin’ the fight, wasn’t I? Both of ‘em.” Cait shot back, hefting the pipe rifle for effect.

“You’re getting sloppy is wh –”

“HEY!” Nora finally broke, voice booming. “If neither of you noticed, we saved your fucking lives and my friend here is a little hurt so stuff the bickering up your asses and get her some more fucking water!” Nora lifted her rifle again, and Tommy edged his hands higher up, ducked, and went to the bar to get a can of water that wasn’t shot through. Piper tugged on Nora’s arm, a you-don’t-have-to-be-like-that motion, but Nora ignored her.

The rest of the conversation went just as well; Tommy was an ass but Cait was high as a fucking kite, and when they got to arguing it was Cait’s ass out of the Combat Zone. She huffed off towards the other two women, calling the ghoul a sonofabitch, and Tommy walked out to the nearest body and started dragging it away.

Nora was hardly paying attention. Piper’s breathing had steadied and her face seemed to show a lot less pain since she’d sat down, but Nora still fished in her pack for some Aspirin and passed her a handful.

“How are you?” She whispered to Piper, sitting down on the ground next to her.

“Ugh.” _Yeah, that’s about right_.

“So, ya came to the Combat Zone to clean the place out?” Cait asked, voice a little softer towards Piper.

“We heard a rumor it was taken over by raiders.” Piper explained. “I was doing a story on it.”

“Ah, Christ. A fuckin’ story. Of course.” Cait spat, exasperated. “You and that fuckin’ paper.”

“Hey. She saved your life, Cait.”

“She got me thrown out on me arse!”

Nora stood up, right in Cait’s face. “She. Saved. Your. Life. You think this was my idea? Not even I would be willing to risk my ass on a rumor of trouble and a friend. That’s all Piper. You should thank her.”

“Ha, friend again is it? Maybe for a night.”

“Two nights.” It was Piper, almost inaudible. She sounded a little _hurt_.

“Well, what exactly am I supposed to do now.” Cait said, but without a bite of anger. Like she didn’t even care.

“There’s a settlement up north. You work, you get a bed and food. Place called Sanctuary.” Nora started. She’d given the pitch a few times now and it rolled off the tongue.

“Ha, yeah, sure. Got mountains a’ chems and free ammo for life, right?”

“Fine. Here.” Nora leaned over, stuffed a handful of cap notes into Cait’s pocket, and sat down. “You’re right, this is a raw deal for you. Go to Goodneighbor or something. I heard there’s a room open at The Third Rail.”

For a second Cait looked like she was gonna pitch the money on the ground. “I don’t need your charity!”

“It’s not charity, Cait. I saw you shooting. You killed at least two of them, probably three. We might not have won without you. So consider it your merc fee, free and clear.”

Cait thought for a second before stuffing the notes deeper in her pocked and grabbing a beer off the bar shelf.

“Ay, Piper. I…I know you wanted to check on me. Hell, maybe Tommy’s right. Maybe it’s good I’m done with this place. So, thanks or whatever. Maybe I’ll see ya in another few years. If me luck holds.” She mocked giving a cheers, took a swig, and walked out.

Piper looked exhausted. She went to get up but could barely do it alone, tired from coming down off the stims.

“Hey, Piper. We can take our time.”

“We need to get out of here Blue. I don’t think Tommy’s too happy with us.”

“Fuck him, take your time. We don’t have far to go today.” She paused. “Sorry about Cait.”

“I didn’t exactly have high expectations.” Piper shrugged and sipped some water, looking back down. “I’m…I’m sorry Blue.”

“For what?”

“Not telling you. About Cait. About –.” Piper was staring at the floor.

“Don’t…I mean, don’t worry about it. It’s ok.”

“I thought maybe…it’s stupid.” Piper shook her head and went to grab her pack. Nora took it from her by the strap and put it over her own free shoulder.

“What is?”

“I thought you’d think…I don’t know. That this was all about some girl. I was being honest when I said I hadn’t seen her in years. But I kind of always wondered if she was still alive. And I know that’s a little fu – ”

“Hey.” Nora stopped, grabbing Piper’s elbow. “It’s ok, _really_. I figured maybe that was the story, but to be honest, it didn’t matter. If she was important to you, still is, whatever, it doesn’t matter why. Just makes her important to me to. Ok?”

Piper just nodded, a tiny smile appearing that reflected on Nora’s face.


	21. Follow the Freedom Trail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/2
> 
> I'm American and gay and not feeling so well. Here's two new chapters hope they distract you.

Piper, with a letter to Nat in hand, led Nora out of the gates of Goodneighbor and past the caravaneer she was posting the letter with.

“What’s it say?” Nora asked good-naturedly, sliding on her sunglasses to ward off the morning glare.

“That I’ll be back in little bit, that I’d never miss the holidays, that she can have only one box of Sugar Bombs when I’m gone and I’d know if she had more, that I love her. The usual.”

“She’s always been this way, ok on her own?”

“Nick and Ellie help but, to be honest, I’ve never been much of a parent to her. She was always so independent. Sure, I make the caps and pay for things but she’s very grown up. And she’ll be an adult here in a few years.”

“An adult? She’s _12_.”

Piper regarded her curiously and nodded.

“Ah, sorry. Used to a little different standard for adulthood, I guess. So, you already knew about this ‘Follow the Freedom Trail’ thing Dr. Amari talked about, right?”

“Yeah, it’s the rumor that always goes around, heard it the first time a few years ago. The real mystery is, that’s all I’ve _ever_ heard. No one knows what it means.”

“Could it mean…follow the freedom trail?” Nora deadpanned.

“Ah, yes, thank you! No one has ever thought of it!” Piper guestured playfully. “It definitely has to do with the old world landmark, yeah, but no one knows if it’s literal of not. Seeing as how the trail starts in Common and goes through the roughest part of the whole Commonwealth, I was never too keen to find out. Alone anyway.”

Nora tipped her hat in a glad-to-be-of-service gesture and Piper gave her a smile that dazzled in the morning sun. She leaned into the taller woman, her shoulder just brushing the side of Nora’s arm and Nora found herself slowing down her gait.

“I figure either it’s a red herring or it’s a way to put people looking for the Railroad through hell. Possibly both.” Piper slowed as well. “But if it is literal, it’s still not very helpful. There are dozens of landmarks along the Freedom Trail and most are _very_ unpleasant places to visit. The ‘end’ of the trail is actually a loop, so it’s not like the trail _goes_ somewhere. I did always suspect the Railroad was somehow located underground, though.”

“Hm, why’s that?”

“Well, I read a book about the Underground Railroad once. Organization that helped free slaves back in some old-world war.”

“Yeah, everyone learned about them in school when I was young. Civil War. But they were mostly farther south.”

“Right. So, the Underground Railroad wasn’t really underground – so I’m thinking the regular old Railroad is. That kind of logic seems to fit with what I know about them. Hiding in plain sight. Simple ciphers, that kind of thing. But they’re elusive. If it is just as simple as following the Freedom Trail, then whatever the key to the puzzle is has got to tough.”

“Alright papergirl, let’s go.”

And Piper gave the taller woman a jokey punch on the shoulder for that moniker and walked ahead blithely.

They set out, starting (very quietly) in Commons and moving past each monument in order. Each with a bronze seal, just like Nora remembered.

Nora regarded the seal just outside Goodneighbor; they had double-backed completely and it was already late afternoon. She tried not to imagine the day was wasted.

“Hey Piper, what are these marks on the seal?” They were subtle; hard to see against the type of normal wear and tear you usually get with the end of the world. But the late day sun lit them up and they glinted brightly.

Piper came over, peering at the seal from around Nora. “Bullet holes?”

“No, I don’t think so. They’re too precise, no ragged edge. Look, there are six here around the ‘o.’” Nora crouched and Piper sat on her haunches, turning her head one way and then the other in her odd ritual; checking if it was safe to stop. Evidently, it was.

“Six and O? I don’t know; doesn’t mean anything to me. Could be part of an address maybe? Or a date?”

“Yeah. Some kind of code.”

“I don’t know Blue, it’s kind of a stretch.” Nora glanced over at her with a very particular look on her face. “Oh. Oh no, we are _not_ going all the way back to the beginning of the line.”

“Come on Piper, this could be it!”

“Six dots? You think so? Care to tell my future with them too?”

“Yeah, got any Jet? Come on, we can do it before nightfall.” Nora grabbed Piper’s arm as she jumped up, meaning to pull the shorter woman along the trail but really just pulling her into her own body slightly until they were standing too close.

“I swear to god Nora, if this is a red herring you are rubbing my feet for an hour tonight.” Piper began with a grumble but finished without a trace of complaining.

“And if it’s not, you set up camp!” And Nora was off, Piper trailing after her at a half-hearted run.

When Piper realized Nora was right, she was too surprised to even complain much. She just nodded her head, took out her notebook, and shoved Nora when the taller woman boasted a little too much.


	22. Leave it for the Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2/2
> 
> Piper and Blue have a tiff and then make up with snack cakes.

“There’s just one thing I don’t understand, Blue.” Piper said over the crackle of the small campfire. She and Nora were just finishing bandaging up her leg from a run-in with a Mirelurk that convinced both the women that the Railroad was probably NOT hiding out in a Mirelurk nest at the bottom of a giant hole in the Massachusetts State House. “MacCready helps you out for a few days and comes away with Power Armor. I help for a few days and I get…what, a ten mile tour of the city with this little souvenir?” Piper had meant it to sound like a joke, but she could hear the annoyance and jealousy in her own voice, and she knew it wasn’t lost on Nora.

Piper was grilling Nora about the Glowing Sea for the tenth time, “getting her notes straight” as she said, even though Piper didn’t have her notes out and the two of them were squatting in an abandoned bookstore.

Nora bristled at the comment and her hands froze on Piper’s shin, cold and solid.

“That’s pretty unfair.” She said flatly. “First of all, that was the deal, he was a paid gun. Second of all, I didn’t know you required compensation.” Nora’s voice turned spiteful “I thought you were just here tagging along for the story.”

As soon as it was out, Nora wished it wasn’t. Even to her ears it sounded vicious.

Piper stood up with only the smallest wince of pain, hands shooting out emphatically.

“Tagging along? Christ, Blue, you _asked me to be here_. You wanted my help!”

“Ah, Piper, I didn’t mean –”

“That I’m a burden?”

“No! Look, it came out wrong, I –”

“No, don’t.” She put up hand to stop Nora. “Look, I’ve heard it plenty before. _Piper, why don’t you mind your own business? Piper, no one wants you here_.”

“That is NOT what I said.” Nora hedged desperately, angrily.

“Christ.” Piper dropped her hands, slumping, and turned away, avoiding Nora’s eyes. “I’m going downstairs.”

She began to walk across the room admirably without a detectible limp, although Nora knew she was still in pain. The survivor watched this for only a second or two before she couldn’t stand it any longer.

“Piper. Piper, come back!” Nora got up and went after her, heading her off quickly at the top of the stairs.

Piper said nothing and did not look up. But she stopped.

“That was a stupid thing to say.” Nora confessed. The thought of making Piper upset made her stomach want to eat itself. She had to fix this. “I know it sounded awful. I meant…”

Piper looked up at Nora from underneath the brim of her press cap. The anger was barely beginning to fade.

“I meant, I hope you’re here because you want to be.” Nora said, almost optimistically, eyes big. “I hope you’re here because it’s valuable and interesting and you don’t feel like I’m dragging you around or taking advantage of you.”

Piper’s face softened at Nora’s words, and she stood a little straighter.

“I do need you on this. I told you, you are the only person I could think of that could help me find the Railroad. But I don’t want it to be something you feel obligated to do. I want you to know you can leave. If you want. Even though I’d really, really prefer that you stayed.” Her voice got much quieter. “You’re my friend, Piper. I want to do this with you.”

Piper’s anger had collapsed, and now she found herself just standing uselessly in the old bookstore not knowing what to do.

Nora reached out her hand and put it gently on Piper’s shoulder. It was the first time they’d touched like that, when it was Nora reaching out. Piper could feel the pressure of every fingertip through her coat; she could feel the weight of Nora’s hand, solid and warm, and for a moment she was caught in it and all the periphery just evaporated. Nora’s eyes were scared and sad and Piper, and it was the thought of Piper leaving that did that do them.

“Besides, I need you to finish dinner with me. You have all the desserts.” Nora interrupted, cracking a grin at the shorter woman who responded with one of her own, slow to form.

When they sat back down it was Piper who spoke first, meekly almost. “I’m sorry I got so upset, Blue. I don’t know why I did. You’re…you’re my friend too, you know.” She paused a long time. “And I want to be here. Sometimes – most times – what I do isn’t easy. I keep fighting and keep fighting and it drives people away. I haven’t had a friend like you in a long time. Hell, maybe I never have.” Piper’s eyes grew wide like she’d startled herself by saying it.

She realized Nora’s hand was still resting gently on her shoulder.

“The fighting thing you do. You know...”

Piper looked up at her, quizzical.

“It’s inspiring.” Nora looked down, her hand sliding off Piper’s shoulder to a sudden shock of cold air in its absence. “That inspires me. I don’t know that I’d be searching for the Railroad if we never met.”

Piper felt herself still. _This woman, this hero, was inspired by me?_

“So, I care about you. And we bicker. Friends bicker.” Nora finished, pulling back.

“Yeah.” Piper nodded, pausing. “Thanks Blue.” _Friends. Friends! Get it together papergirl._

And as they ate over the quiet crackling of their tiny fire, Piper passing a package of Fancy Lad Cakes to Nora as the light died, Nora’s mind wandered back to what Piper said. _I don’t know why I did._

It was, she had to admit, a weirdly intense conversation. She couldn’t remember having one like it before, or being so desperate to resolve a spat with a friend, especially one she’d only know 6 weeks.

But she shrugged and had dessert and left it for the morning.


	23. So, bad news everyone [not a real chapter]

Unfortunately this story is going to have a little stumbling block. I was keeping my word doc on google drive and somehow the version of the doc got rolled back to Sep 23. I lost about 8 completed chapters that needed some light editing before posting, and a few more partially written chapters.

 

I am trying to troubleshoot this issue with google support but it may not turn out for me. Please be patient with me, my next update will be in a little while. If the document can't be recovered I'm going to have to try to work up the motivation to rewrite a lot of material. Wish me luck.

 

Thanks,

Pseudoanonymous


	24. One if By Land

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I RECOVERED MY DOCUMENT and am very excited, here's two chapters!
> 
> 1/2 Nora and Piper discover the Railroad.

“Is sleeping sickness still a thing, Piper?”

“Was that even a thing during your lifetime?” Piper shot back.

“I think my vision is tunneling.” Nora slurred. They had been joking about it since they left their campsite, a little upper level apartment just off the trail, staked out by a local trader that offered plenty of protection with turrets but nothing in the way of a quiet night. But even though Piper tried to sound easy about it, she looked back with real concern; Nora was not well. The survivor had to pump herself full of stims for their last skirmish with Mutants just this morning and the come-down was really affecting her now. Piper suspected her weak pre-war immune system was down again too, making matters worse.

Nora closely followed Piper through the catacombs of Old North. They were so close, they could both taste it – but Nora was barely on her feet. Piper had to deal with the ghouls, or at least the ones not stayed by Nora’s voice (“How do you do that anyway? You just put your hands out and shush them and they calm right down!”) until finally, finally there was a glint of bronze at the end of the hall.

A Freedom Trail seal made into a rotating dial.

“So _this_ is how they do it. I can’t freaking believe their password is RAILROAD!” Piper said incredulously.

“Talk about hiding in plain sight.” Nora said, leaning heavily on a cold catacomb wall. “I think you were right. I think the point was just to put us through hell.”

Piper turned the dials and clicked the combination and the wall before them fell away into pitch-black darkness.

Blinding white light flooded her vision. _Maybe I’m dying of tiredness_ was her first thought before she heard a sharp, demanding voice echo against the catacomb walls.

“Stop right there!” A woman boomed. Piper was frozen beside her, hand on her sidearm. Dogmeat cleaved closely to Nora’s side. “You went to a lot of trouble to arrange this meeting. But before we go any further, answer my questions.” Piper grabbed Nora’s arm and lead them a step or two forward – evidently her eyes had adjusted first. “Who the hell are you?”

Piper spoke first. “We don’t mean trouble! I’m Piper Wright, Diamond City…we’re just –”

“ _The_ Piper Wright?” The woman asked, astounded. The two others with her whispered amongst themselves.

“I…w-well, yeah. Publick Occurrences?” Piper ventured. _Last place she thought she’d be recognized_.

“Well would you look at that.” The big one holding the minigun said with a grin.

“Glory, wait.” The woman in the center admonished, one hand up. She was clearly some sort of leader. “Who is this with you?”

“His name’s Dogmeat.”

“Cute. I mean the one with _two_ legs.”

Piper turned back to Nora, unsure. “Why don’t you tell us who you are, first?” Piper asked with that familiar reporterly edge and something almost like _protectiveness_.

“In a world full of suspicion, treachery, and hunters, we’re the synths’ only friends. We’re the Railroad. So answer my question.”

“I’m Nora. Nora Wells, from Sanctuary.” Nora spoke up, trying to keep the tired slur out of her voice. “I followed the Freedom Trail with Piper looking for the Railroad. I’m not your enemy.”

“You are an unknown quantity.” The woman in the center replied. “I am Desdemona, and I am the leader of the Railroad.” She turned back to Piper. “And you, Ms. Wright, have come at an auspicious time. We have been trying to recruit you for quite a while. If I had known you’d just show here up on your own, we could’ve pulled a few agents from Diamond City.”

“I – wait, what? Why do you want to recruit _me_?”

“First tell me, who told you how to contact us? I know it wasn’t one of our agents.”

“I’ve got to protect my sources, Desdemona.”

“That’s fair. I’d expect no different. We have been looking to recruit you since that article you published last year about how Nick Valentine was a human being. That moved a lot of people in our organization. We –”

“You’re having a party. What gives with my invitation?” A man in sunglasses piped up from behind Desdemona. Just in time, too. Forget about Nora, now it was Piper who looked like she was ready to pass out.

“Deacon, you’re late. I need intel. What do you have on this Nora Wells?” Nora shuffled awkwardly, listening to herself being talked about. She wondered how long she could hold out before throwing caps at these people for medicine and a bed. _If they don’t kill us, I guess_.

“Oh, hey Dogmeat.” The hound wagged his tail happily. _What is even happening?_ “Wow, news flash boss. This lady is kind of a big deal. She’s The Woman Out Of Time. Vault 111. Killed Conrad Kellogg? Walked into the Glowing Sea like it was a day on the beach? Killed a courser?”

“ _You_ are Nora, from _View from the Vault_?” Desdemona asked. _Holy shit Piper must be practically sublimating._ Nora had never seen her recognized outside of Diamond City or Goodneighbor; now it was like they’d stumbled into her secret underground fan club. “ _You killed a courser_?”

“And now we need your help decoding the chip. That’s why we’re here.”

“Desdemona, Deacon.” Piper interrupted, quiet authority in her voice. “Obviously we have a lot to talk about, but right now B-Nora isn’t ok. She needs to rest.” Piper glanced back at Nora with knitting brows as she watched the taller woman sway. She reached out a hand to steady her, clasping her warmly and strongly at the elbow and letting her fingers press a subtle soothing rhythm there. “Please. It wasn’t easy getting here.” Piper bet on her sway with these people. And when Piper placed a bet, she almost always won.

“Understatement of the century, Publick.” Deacon said. “We know, we were watching. Come on Des, we have to let them in. They followed the trail! We can grill them later.”

“I’m…I’m inclined to agree with Deacon, actually. Indeed if Piper Wright is vouching for you, we’re willing to make an exception here. But I have one question, Nora. The only question that matters. Would you risk your life for your fellow man, even if that man was a synth?”

“I’ll do you one better, Desdemona. I’ll tell you I have. Just ask Nick Valentine.”

Desdemona looked over her shoulder to Deacon, who nodded enthusiastically and gave her two thumbs up. Nora thought she could see her roll her eyes.

Well, they had to let her in after that.

-

Nora slept for almost twelve hours with Dogmeat at her feet. Dr. Carrington had treated her, IV’d her, and pointed to a mattress in the corner and she hadn’t even taken her jacket off.

When she woke up Piper was digging into a bowl of noodles next to her, ankles crossed just so they touched the mattress; the reporter just saw Nora’s eyes open and happily reached out a forkful towards her like she’d been waiting.

They took the whole day to talk over the issue of decoding the Courser Chip. They talked to (well, Nora talked; Piper interviewed) Deacon, and Glory, and Dr. Carrington, and even P.A.M. while Dogmeat trawled happily for pets. Piper was pretty adamantly for handing the chip over – _shocked, truly_ , thought Nora as she watched Piper smile herself silly as she talked about one or another of her articles – but Nora had serious reservations. The Railroad was an unknown quantity to her as much as she was to them.

In the end it was how they treated Nora of all things that convinced them to let Tinker Tom have a crack at it. They’d patched her up, given her water, and let her have a bed for as long as she needed. They let her in and treated her well, with no promises, and not even a single gun was raised at her, not once since Glory hefted her minigun down in delight at finding the Editor of Publick Occurrences on her doorstep. Even though what the Railroad wanted more than anything was burning a hole in her pocket and they could’ve just killed her for it.

Even if they turned out to not be what they seemed, it was a small price to pay to get the data.

Tinker Tom started banging excitedly on his keyboard, muttering a string of strange phrases Nora could only partially parse, and eventually turned and told them it would work, but it would take a few days. At least Nora was pretty sure that’s what he said.

Piper was thrilled to have an excuse to come back. Nora felt the stress creep up the back of her throat. She hated waiting.


	25. Handcraft and Tradecraft

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2/2 Piper and Nora play along with the Railroad

Desdemona started the morning by telling Piper one hundred times how she could not write an article about the Railroad.

“Geez, Des, I know. I mean, don’t get me wrong, one of the biggest stories of my life and I’m gagged! But journalistic ethics yeah yeah.” Piper waved her hands in the air. “We print the news to inform the public; not endanger the innocent. Especially in wartime.”

“I’m glad we understand each other, Ms. Wright. I was hoping we would, because I want to offer you a place in the Railroad. It’s highly unorthodox to do without any training, but we’d like to make you a Runner to start. To be honest, we just survived a very strong blow to our organization and we need capable agents now. We’d be happy to bring you on. All you need is a codename.”

Piper did a double-take. “I get to join the Railroad AND I get a codename? Is this some kind of prank where I say yes and you kick me in the shin and take my lunch money?” Piper joked through an incredulous smile.

“I assure you Ms. Wright it is nothing of the sort. So, what would you like to be called?”

Piper paused for a second. “Friday.”

“Agent Friday it is. Has a ring to it. Welcome aboard, Agent. And you, Nora.”

Nora turned, still smiling at Piper. The joyful expression on her face. The say she looked back at Nora from under that press cap of her. Nora stole her eyes away to answer. “Des?”

“We’d like to offer you a spot as a tourist. We don’t time to train an agent up fully now, but I think we can still use you. I’d like you to trail Friday here and work with Deacon. There’s a chore that needs running and I hope you two can do it in the next few days. The courser chip won’t be ready until then.”

As Piper and Nora walked away, Piper jokes “guess you’re trailing me, _tourist_.” She smiled. _She deserves to gloat though, doesn’t she?_

“Yeah, yeah _Agent Friday_. Why ‘Friday,’ by the way?”

“I dunno it’s…it’s something Nick used to call me when I’d follow him around on cases a few years back, when I was still getting the paper off the ground. ‘Girl Friday.’ I’d write up stories based on his exploits. It’s kind of what launched Publick – everyone was so interested to know what a synth does all day they bought my weeklies.”

“So, a tribute to Valentine.”

That second night at Railroad HQ was so strangely quite Nora felt like she could hear a pin drop in Sanctuary. Finally, to stifle the silence, Deacon trucked out with an old six-string guitar and Des, of all people, with a country-tuned violin, and the two played a bit for the other Agents as they had their pre-shift coffees or read old newspapers to wind down for the night. Nora didn’t recognize any of the songs but Piper hummed along to most of them as she went over her notes again and again, scribbling in shorthand before sighing with the renewed realization that her stories would never see the printing press. With Piper humming, like she did to DCR, Nora felt herself calm deeply and fully, letting the music wash over her in the warm yellow light of the catacombs.

Songs echoed around her and around the bones of the dead.

On some songs Deacon even sang. But he never sang two in the same voice; for one he’d be a twangy cowboy, another he’d do in falsetto entirely, and another in deep cockney slang. Nora fell asleep early to the sound, wondering if she’d get to hear him do one underwater, or while eating, or all backwards. He probably would eventually.

-

The three of them and Dogmeat met by a shattered section of the Mass Pike, Nora for once in her life in a t-shirt and jeans, figuring on inconspicuousness. But apparently nothing like Deacon.

The tourist had warned them that the Slocum Joe’s escape tunnel would be crammed with Gen 1s and 2s, and he hadn’t been wrong.

The first skirmish or two had been by-the-book, Nora the heavy in front and Piper flanking her as she always did. At every sound of movement Deacon seemed to disappear completely, only to reappear when the dust cleared, stepping over a body or two that Nora hadn’t even realized he’d felled.

Fighting through the old HQ was no joke, but even still the three were careful to ‘bury’ the bodies they found, closing their eyes and shrouding them just where they lay, or pulling them from the water when they had to. Deacon said nothing about it, but Nora could tell he wished for all the world they could do better than that for them.

They worked well – hell, they worked like clockwork together – until the space opened up into offices.

Then, Deacon didn’t even have time to properly disappear.

“Fuck!” Nora bite out loudly as the three fell behind cover, Gen 2s raining blue fire down on their position, chewing up Nora’s shoulder and chest pieces and ripping a hole in her thigh that at least cauterized itself. Piper was yelling something; she was too far away, and instead of trying to change cover Nora pawed at her belt for a Med-X.

Plunger depressed; a Gen 2 trying to breach her cover exploded above her in fire and sparks.

Empty syringe skittered across the floor; at Nora’s left, Piper swung a length of rebar into a Gen 1 hard enough to crumple it like a tin can.

Nora screamed through the din “Your behavior is a malfunction! Aggressive combat tactics are forbidden! Stand down!” and one of the Gen 1’s stopped, motionless, weapon dropping from its hand instantly as the one behind it charged ahead before its head snapped back and off at the deafening crack of Deacon’s rifle. From where, Nora didn’t know.

The Med-X was in her system now and she swung from target to target easily, almost like time was slower and nothing hurt. The hole in her leg barely slowed her down.

Two more – three, coming out of the woodwork, no time to hide. And down they went one by one, Nora mean and efficient, picking one off of Deacon’s position with practiced precision; the others from behind walls and security windows like so many fish in a barrels.

Dust settled then, over the smell of hot cordite and that special hellish melted plastic smell so typical of Institute jobs. And Deacon came out, and Piper approached her, but Nora’s heart was still pounding in her chest like she was still in combat and who was she to argue with her instincts? To her left – no one in her sights as she raked her pistol across the room. To her right – no one, and then a figure, human, red, that she almost raised her gun at – almost.

Her heart pounded harder, and her vision blurred. Something was wrong with her shoes – one was damaged? Or off? Or tilted…

“Woah, Blue. Hey.” The woman came closer, and suddenly in was Piper in her vision, bracing her at both arms, looming over her and then away from her.

Farther and farther away until cold concrete slammed into the back of her head and a muffled “BLUE!” was all she heard as the room went dark and gone.

Piper, on the outside, jolted towards the crumpling survivor, snatching her just as she went down, softening her fall. She cursed, hard – in her head, out loud she was sure, a string of shits and fucks that rolled off her tongue like a litany or a prayer as she tried to get color in Nora’s cheeks and water in her throat. Deacon reappeared, coming down the stairs ( _and how the hell did he get up there during the battle_ ) but stopping short, watching.

One, or two, or even three heartbeats went by. Silence. Piper’s knuckles were white around Nora’s arms. The smell of burning blood filled her nostrils.

A gasp – a strong, stinging gasp from Nora and she shot up in Piper’s lap, heart a frantic tempo, to see the shorter woman with wet, angry eyes spilling oaths like they were prayers.

“God…god fucking…Blue. _Blue_.” Piper gasped along with her. “You scared the ever-living _shit_ out of me you fantastic idiot.”

“S-sorry” Nora choked.

“Was that Med-X? Where did you get it from, Blue?” Piper interrogated her while still forcing water to her lips.

The taller woman shuffled to sit up straighter, taking the can from her, looking sheepish and hurt. “I…I don’t remember. A raid. I don’t know.”

“Blue, goddamn.” Piper shook her head, angry, laughing. “Raiders cut Med-X all the time. You could have died.” Her voice was grave again. “Don’t you ever, ever –”

“Ok.” Nora nodded, eyes wet too now. “Ok, I won’t. I won’t.”

“You really _scared the shit out of me_.”

Nora looked up again and there was something so serious, so deep, so mortal in Piper’s eyes just sitting there for her. It was there, and Deacon made a tiny noise on the stairs, and it was gone.

-

The four of them walked back overland from Lexington to Old North, under cover of night, while Piper explained how Raiders mark their drugs with symbols to indicate what things are cut with and Deacon went on and on about events that could not _possibly_ have happened. And about Nora talking down a synth – apparently something he’d never seen and was determined to use as leverage with Glory.

Why, she wasn’t yet sure and certainly didn’t yet trust.

By the time the three had gotten back to Old North, Tinker Tom was “a tiny baby’s breath away” from finishing the hack, which, according to Des’s translation, meant he’d be done in the morning.

And somehow, in the quiet of the night, Piper’s hand had found its way into Nora’s, gentle and strong.


	26. Railroad Family Jam Band

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/2 It's ALMOST a songfic

The second time Deacon brought out the guitar at Railroad HQ Nora found herself actually excited for some music. She had worn so thin on the radio – listening to it all the time with Piper who never seemed to be bothered by the same short rotation – she was ready for anything else. She watched Deacon set up while she worked on her newest pistol at the nearest workbench, and when Des came out with her violin and started tuning Nora knew it’d be a good show.

They played a few instrumental numbers, and the Agents milled about or had drinks in a ring around them, the lantern lights of the catacombs tracing stark shadows off their gently moving figures.

Deacon started up a new song; a nod to Des, a silent four-count, and he opened with a pleasant chord progression.

“I love this song!” Piper loudly whispered from behind her, rushing past the workbench, just brushing her fingertips over Nora’s shoulder.

Deacon had begun to sing, true and low, and Nora wondered if that was his actual natural voice. It was quite good, Nora thought while re-cleaning her piece. She watched as Piper went up to him and Nora thought she was just getting closer to the music, but then she made some kind of gesture and on the next verse -

She began to sing with him. Her voice was a solid Soprano, a little breathy and a little nasally and so very Piper. She started quietly, barely registering under Deacon’s voice, but pretty soon you could hear her just as loud. Some of the Agents looked to her smiling. Nora caught Des raising one eyebrow.

Piper had a beautiful voice. How had Nora never heard it? All they did was listen to the damn radio! But Piper never sang, or if she did it was flippant. And here she was, singing beautifully over a guitar and a violin in the catacombs of an old church by lamplight.

Nora was frozen to the spot. It was unreal.

Piper broke out in her own verse now; delicate, right on key. Not too powerful, or flourishing – just simple and true. Chills crawled from Nora’s forearms to the nape of her neck.

Nora was lost in it, didn’t even realize the song was ending until it was over, and there was a smattering of applause – more than normal – and if Nora had been capable of looking anywhere but at Piper she would’ve seen Glory roll her eyes at her harder than any human could. But she didn’t see it; all she saw was Piper.

Piper, who did a little jokey bow and walked back to Nora’s workbench, leaning against it, giving Nora this look she couldn’t identify.

“Piper, I had no idea you could sing.”

“Everyone can sing, Blue.”

“Not like _that_. You’re… _really good_. Your voice is amazing.”

Piper went pink. She stopped leaning, fidgeted, adjusted her hat. “I, ah, thanks Blue.”

“I mean it, that was…something else. It was really…it was beautiful.”

Now Piper went _red_. All across her freckles. Her eyes snapped up to Nora’s, held them gently, some words struggling at the end of her tongue.

“What?” Nora smiled, curious, breaking the spell. Piper looked away.

“No, no, nothing. Glad you liked the song, Blue.” She gave the taller woman a kind of awkward but playful punch on the shoulder and walked back to the sleeping area.

Nora had the feeling of something wonderful slipping through her fingers. Like being twenty feet from a desert oasis and not seeing it over the sand. It was the strangest feeling.

 -

Finally, on the morning of the 16th, Tom declared victory over the Courser Chip and a holotape of the data dump found its way into Nora’s hands.

“Hey Nora, ok, that’s the dump. We got some HOT stuff on this little cartridge, right? Like, top secret secret sauce, you dig?”

“I think I do dig, Tom.” Nora confirmed to both Piper and Des’s wry smiles.

“We want you to know, Nora, you’re free to go from here. Even though you don’t have an obligation to us, we hope you choose to work with us on this. A lot of innocent lives are at stake. I implore you to think about all the people you could help.” Des added, ever-present cigarette in hand as she turned to Nora.

“I know, Des. I don’t know what’s happening with the chip, but I do know you are on the right side of things.”

“That’s not exactly the guarantee I was hoping for. Maybe working with Agent Friday here will convince you of the urgency of our mission.”

“Friday could probably convince me of anything” Nora said without irony, not noticing Piper going pink behind her.

“For all our sakes I hope you’re right.”

“Not sure you’re going to work with the Railroad?” Piper asked furtively as the two left Old North on the way to a dead drop outside of Bunker Hill; the next mission for Agent Friday. “Playing the angles here Blue?”

“I just want to explore options. The schematics Tom supplied were incredibly resource-intensive. It would take a huge, dedicated group of laborers to create the structures he specified, not to mention a huge power supply and skilled technicians. And building it will take months; it will have to be extremely well-defended, probably built in secret. I want to head up north, think out my strategy.”

Piper looked at her cockeyed and half-nodded. “What gives with the cageyness?”

“I’m not being cagey.” Piper shot her an I-know-better look. “I just – I, ugh. I just need to think, ok? I need to figure out how I’m actually going to do this because god knows the Railroad can’t organize this alone, not when they’re still reeling from Switchboard.”

Piper hesitated and when she spoke it was slow. “Ok, Blue, but just…be careful? Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“So, don’t do…nothing?”

“There are things I wouldn’t do!” Piper shot at her, playful again. “Brat.”

Nora smiled but it quickly slid off her face. She was going to have to break Piper’s little bit of advice and ask for forgiveness rather than permission.


	27. Hero's Welcoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2/2 Before Blue came into her life Piper had a full-time do-gooder gig all by herself, and she can still do it just fine by herself, thank you very much

The day before Christmas Eve Nora strutted into Diamond City like she had after the Glowing Sea: laser rifle slung jauntily over one shoulder, new armor gleaming in the midday sun. She waited on baited breath for the comments to come in: _Wow, look at you, the Woman Out Of Time_ or _Did you fight off an army for that gun?_ or _I missed you, Blue!_

But as she walked in the city gates something terrible happened. She was roundly ignored. Not even a nosy guard commented about her shiny new toy or her air of victory. In fact, no one was looking her way. They were all looking…

Down. At the newspapers in their hand. _Everyone_ had one.

As Nora approached Publick Occurrences, she could make out Nat on her soapbox, slinging papers, crying on the new issue to every passerby. When she recognized Nora climbing out of her armor in the market she jumped off her box, dropped her papers, and ran up to the survivor.

“Hey sweetie.” Nora said happily, kneeling down and hugging the girl.

“Ugh, I’m not _sweetie_. I’m almost a teenager!” Nat complained with faux-annoyance, hugging her back; the happiness was clear in her voice. “Did you hear about the new issue?”

“Not yet. Care to illuminate me?” Nora said, standing to walk back with Nat.

“Oh man lady! You really missed out. Piper got the _biggest_ story when you were gone; it’s selling so much we’re having to print another run! Everyone is talking about it! So, what happened was that Piper–”

“Wasn’t even the first Wright sister that the famous Woman Out Of Time bothered to say hello to.” Piper cut in from right behind Nora with a snarky grin. _When had she snuck up on me?_ Nora though as she whipped around.

Nora cracked a huge, true smile and hugged the shorter woman close, shockingly little fabric between them since Nora was in only her suit and Piper wasn’t wearing her coat. Piper hugged her back hard, not letting go even when Nora wondered if most people hug this long. She smelled like newspaper ink and damp leather and how had Nora never noticed that before when it was so memorable, the way she smelled?

“Blue, you came back for Christmas! Tell me you’re staying at least for tomorrow.” Piper said hopefully, muffled by Nora’s embrace.

“At least for tomorrow,” she confirmed, pulling back only enough to see the reporter. “So, someone had a bestseller when I was gone, huh? Guess that’s why everyone and his brother is buried so far in the paper they couldn’t say hello.”

“Who’s brother?”

“Huh? Ah, never mind.” Nora had been only the _tiniest_ bit annoyed, but knowing it was Piper’s success that had swept the city, she felt her annoyance disappear, replaced by intense curiosity. “What’s going on?”

“Well, I had quite the scoop.” Piper walked towards her door, gesturing to Nora to follow. “Tell it to you over coffee?”

_-_

“I still can’t believe you busted a trafficking ring. You saved… _Jesus, Piper_ , you saved like a dozen kids.”

“It wasn’t _just_ me, Blue. It was the power of the press.” Piper demurred, but despite her humility Nora could see the pride shining through her everywhere; she was beaming with it.

“Bullshit!”

“Yeah, _bullshit_!” Nat chimed in from near the doorway, somewhat eavesdropping on the whole retelling; she couldn’t get enough of it.

“Language, Natalie!” Piper warned, shooting an affectionate way-to-go at Nora who had the grace to look contrite. Nat hopped out the door, back to hawking papers.

“I mean it Pipes, if what you wrote is true – and I know it is – _you_ were the one that got the guards involved. _You_ were the one that cast doubt on this Pembroke guy – you figured it all out. Hell, you shot the asshole in the leg.”

“Yeah,” Piper chuckled. “That was probably my favorite part.”

“And you even avoided shitting on the Mayor for once in your life!”

Piper threw her cigarette pack at Nora’s head, just barely missing, before sliding a cigarette between her lips and patting herself for a light. “Oh, ha. Well, what I wrote was true. He offered asylum to all those kids. I’m not sure why – needed to dig his cover deeper, probably, or knew it’d be good after what _The Synthetic Truth_ did to his image – but he did it. Hell, maybe Geneva grew a heart and made him do it.”

“Is this how you manage to stick around here, throw McDonough a bone every month or two?” Nora joked, grabbing a flip lighter off the table behind her and leaning towards Piper to offer a light. She lit the flame, watching the flicker of gold play in Piper’s eyes which looked back at her just as intently. It was another one of those hanging moments, just like at HQ. Nora could hardly breathe. When the light went out it was like the spell was broken, and Piper closed her eyes to take a long drag.

“No, no, that’s pure luck.” Piper said calmly, leaning back. It took Nora far too long to figure out what she was even replying to. “So, are you going to tell me what you’ve been doing for the last week, survivorgirl?” Piper asked, opening only one eye and letting a lazy grin wash over her face. _She’s not hounding me because she knows I can’t keep anything from her._

Nora resigned herself to it.

“I went to see the Brotherhood of Steel.”

That got Piper’s attention. She sat back up straight in an instant, leaning forward, eyes focused. She looked almost angry. “What? Why?”

“Look, I’m going to tell you everything, but you have to promise no interruptions. Ok? I have a lot to explain” Piper nodded cautiously and Nora went on. “I know what people say about them, but every time I’ve seen the Brotherhood they’ve been taking out some ferals or raiders or mutants, something that probably would’ve taken me out. When I was going to CIT with Mac, we ran into a group of them trying to defend a police station in Cambridge. We helped them out, and they were – they were honorable. They shared supplies with us. Their mission sounded noble.”

“What, part, the fascism or the hoarding?”

“Hey!” Nora growled. “For once you sound like Mac. Well, I went back to Cambridge and eventually I went out to the Prydwen.” Piper was clearly trying to bite her tongue, busying herself with smoking nervously. “This…Paladin, Danse, he wanted to recruit me. He wanted to be my sponsor. But I just came on for contract work. I ran a few missions with them. It felt…it felt like the Marines, a lot. A lot more than I expected.”

“You _left_ the Marines!”

“Piper, _interruptions_! Yeah, I did. I left. But I also joined in the first place. The Brotherhood, it’s everything good and everything bad about the armed forces, the way they were back then. It’s organized, it’s full of people that mean well. But it’s violence, it glorifies violence. It’s rigid and uncompromising and Elder Maxon, he’s an ideologue. There’s no dissent. It’s like all these people wanted order, wanted community and safety and just wanted to do good, to make something of themselves, avoid the sins of the past, but all they’re doing is repeating them. Perpetuating violence, militarism, xenophobia. It’s like they all forgot to read the fine print on history.”

Piper quirked her brow, not amused exactly but interested. She waited long enough that she figured it didn’t count as an interruption. “’Fine print on history.’” She repeated thoughtfully.

“I realized that… I have to decide what I think is best for the future. This is going to be my world now, hopefully Shaun’s too. And you, Piper, you’re better at that than anyone I’ve ever met. You have this clear, perfect vision of what the world could be and you work so hard for it. But I haven’t been thinking like that.”

“Blue.” Piper said, deep doubt in her voice. Piper might’ve loved to talk up the importance of the press but she always downplayed her own part, always saying that the truth helped people, not her. Nora loved and hated that about her, and was overall determined to change the reporter’s ideas on the subject.

“Piper.” Nora teased, then grew serious again. “I think people come to the Brotherhood for the right reasons. They want structure and safety and to be part of something bigger.” Piper got this look on her face like for the first time she knew where Nora was going with this. “The Railroad, they need protected locations to operate out of – coverage, support, a recruiting pool that doesn’t require a death march through Boston.” Nora took a deep breath, meeting Piper’s eyes hard and holding them. “And _I_ need it. If we’re going to build this thing…this thing Tom put together, this teleporter, without the Brotherhood behind it, it’s going to take months and literal tons of raw materials. I need a protected location, a series of cooperating settlements, a trade network capable of transporting shipments and turning stock over in Diamond City, Goodneighbor, Bunker Hill. The whole deal.”

“Are you thinking…Blue…about –?”

“The Minutemen.” Nora finished her sentence, decisively. “I want to start the Minutemen again.”

“That’s…a lot Blue. A lot, a lot…not that you can’t do it! You can totally do it.” A long pause.  “But, oh my god. The _Minutemen_. What if Des doesn’t go for it?”

“You know she will. But if she doesn’t, it just means we have to work that much harder to recruit people.”

“Preston?”

“He won’t have to. I’d be the General. But, I think he will. I think he can put his fear aside.”

“This is a lot, Blue.”

“I know. I know. But I’m going to go up to Sanctuary after the holidays and I’m going to get Preston and the rest with me. And I want you to come too, if you want. I want to do this with you.”

Nora waited, scared almost, as Piper sat still with a cigarette between her lips, looking blankly at the taller woman.

“You want me to be a Minuteman?”

“If you want. I just want…I want you close, Piper. I...” Nora trailed off lamely.

Piper was glowing: eyebrows raised up in surprise, freckled cheeks pinking. When she spoke it was earnest but halting. “B…blue. I…that’s really sweet…and u-unexpected of you. I mean…I, yeah, I like travelling with you. I think you could probably do anything on your own if you wanted but…I know whatever you do, it’s to help people. So yeah, Blue. I’m in.”

“Ok then.” Nora smiled, all the way across her face.

“Ok.”


	28. The Valentine Detective Agency Holiday Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/2  
> A long Christmasy chapter in which Piper and Nora finally get to hold each other. Kind of.

Nora always did love Christmas. She thought this time of the year would be the hardest without Shaun or Nate or her parents, but in fact she was enjoying the season. There was so little here to remind her of how it used to be, it was a bit like a whole different holiday. Even the perpetual snow cover of a real, deep Boston winter was absent, although the air certainly had a chill to it now.

The Valentine Detective Agency’s holiday party was apparently a Christmas Eve tradition, and when Piper had insisted she come Nora hadn’t put up a fight at all. She was planning to head to Sanctuary in a few days, maybe travel on Christmas Day itself, but she was glad to actually have something to do on Christmas Eve. She felt…quite accepted, in fact.

Walking in, she was met with a wall of staticy swing and the strong smell of booze. Nora caught sight of Yefim and Travis briefly before finding Piper, talking casually with Arturo. She was wearing a simple set of jeans with a wine colored sweater and that old scarf of hers. She didn’t see Nora yet.

Reluctantly Nora turned back to Ellie, who’d let her in.

“Well Ellie, looks like quite the party.” Ellie was decked out in a red and white skirt and green hat, and it was clear she’d paid extra attention to her hair for the occasion.

“Sure does, Nora. I’m so glad you could come. I know that the holidays can be a difficult time. We’re just really glad you’re here with all of us.” She handed Nora a hot mug of something, certainly alcoholic by the smell of it, maybe a cider of some kind.

_Wow, Ellie really is good at that. Valentine is lucky to have her._

“Not dancing?” A woman quipped playfully from behind her. In a very, very familiar voice.

Nora turned around to see Piper behind her, or rather below her – the woman was more than the usual few inches shorter now which startled Nora until she realized the reporter had taken her shoes off to dance.

“I think I missed the memo on the dress code.” Nora said, raising an eyebrow at Piper.

“Oh, ha.” Piper shoved her playfully, sloshing Nora’s drink. Nora didn’t notice.

“Well would you look who it is.” Valentine walked up to the two, a note of pleasant surprise in his voice. “Made it out for the holidays, kiddo?”

“Hey Nick. Quite the yuletide shindig you have going here.”

“Every year. We have whatever approximates eggnog, cut a rug. It brings people into the office for some other reason than tragedy, at least.”

Nora nodded and then caught a glimpse of Piper’s face. Her expression was utter confusion, both eyebrows lifted in skeptical bemusement.

“I swear to god it’s like you two speak a different language sometimes.” Piper shook her head as Nick chuckled and shrugged. “Come on survivorgirl, let’s whatsit –” Piper waved her hand dismissively before she struck the phrase. “ _Cut a rug_.”

“I haven’t danced since my wedding, Piper. And I’m not planning on getting married again anytime soon.” The last few words of Nora’s reply were out before she could stop them but she tried to stuff them back down anyway, along with her thoughts of _why the hell did I say that_ , with a big gulp of her drink.

Her _very stiff_ drink.

Nora sputtered and turned away, and if Piper had a reaction she hid it well, but Valentine looked embarrassed as hell. She smiled almost sheepishly, raised her mug halfway towards her friends, and tried to find a nice dark corner to sit down in.

The office space was small – cramped, in fact – but pleasantly so. The desks and boxes and filing cabinets had all been moved to make way for dancers in the middle and chairs along the walls. The song that was on now was actually one Nora didn’t recognize, which was odd considering how goddamn much Piper insisted on listening to the radio when they were traveling together. _It must be a special set just for Christmas_ , Nora thought. 

Nora took another much smaller sip of her drink and watched the room. She watched Travis in the back very much avoiding eye contact with Scarlett. _Radio must be on a tape_. Both Vadim and Yefim were there, working the room like they work the Dugout. There was Nat and Nina and a few other kids whose names Nora couldn’t think of playing a game in the opposite corner, Nat for sure too cool to come up to say hi to Nora just yet. There were a few unfamiliar faces, and people came and went from outside. Frankly she was growing bored with it, letting her mind wander to the Minutemen and what had to be done in the next few days. _Figures I’m a bore at a party these days, I am 240 years old_ Nora let herself muse, _I think I’m allowed to be grouchy. I’m an old lady_.

Her reverie was interrupted by a flash of dark red on the dance floor, a figure moving so blithely and surely that Nora knew who it was without having to see the figure’s face. And it was Valentine leading her.

Today Valentine could barely keep up with her. It wasn’t her skill – it was her happiness. She beamed out from the dance floor, and Valentine’s flourishes only complimented her. He went for a dip and Nora gripped her drink for one tight second before she came back up laughing. Clearly Piper had a love of the holiday season.

When the music stopped Piper disappeared into the crowd, but Valentine caught Nora’s figure sitting in the corner and walked over to her.

He sat down, making a gesture like wiping sweat from his brow which struck Nora as both disconcerting and endearing. “You wanna dance, kiddo? It’s a party, after all.”

Nora smiled and took another sip of her nearly empty mug. “I’d need to have a few more in me, I think.”

“Oh come on. There’s not much holiday cheer to go around these days, you have to take it where you can get it. Even if it’s with this old mug.” He smiled genially.

“I really should just be drinking alone, you know.” Nora joked as she took Valentine’s outstretched hand. _Why the hell not_. “Pretty sure I haven’t forgotten how to do that.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m a robot after all, I can keep pretty good time. Start on 3, 4 –” Valentine began to lead, movements indeed very predictable. He was an easy lead, and just one song in Nora could feel the steps again, feel herself warming up to it. Dancing was something she’d done when she was young, of course – everyone had. When she was in school, a million years ago. Maybe she had been decent; certainly now she remembered why it was so much the fashion back then. It was pretty damn fun.

“So much for rusty.” Valentine smiled at her on a turn. He turned her again, easily, and she followed on the off step just so and it felt _good_. When had she last felt his good? She was just hitting the rhythm now when someone tapped her shoulder.

“Mind if I cut in, you two?” It was Piper, sweater off now to show a plain green shirt. The color brought her eyes out brightly and her cheeks and neck were flushed from dancing. She smiled excitedly as she looked between Valentine and Nora.

“By all means, Miss Wright.” Nick broke away and gave a little bow.

“Sure, of course. You two know what you’re doing.” Nora said, only a little disappointed. Maybe she’d find another partner. Or get another mug of cider.

In a quick and fluid motion Piper grabbed Nora’s hand and moved to the middle of the room in a rush. The look on Valentine’s face was _bemused_ but Nora was sure her expression was pure shock. _Piper was cutting in on Valentine, not me._

Nora’s stomach constricted and tried to take flight all at once. _God, I am I actually nervous to dance? More like make a fool of myself in front of someone who knows what they’re doing._

“P-piper! I don’t…I’m not great at this.”

“I saw you, Blue. Looked fine to me.” Piper smiled, squaring up to start dancing.

“I can’t lead.”

“Good thing I can!” Piper said through a suppressed chuckle. Indeed, she’s already taken the lead position and her hand rested easily against Nora’s back. “Ready?”

“Wait” Nora stalled, kneeling down to untie her boots and shuck them across the room. “Got to even things up. And make sure that when I step on your toes – which I _will_ – I don’t crush them.”

“I’m not worried, survivorgirl.” Piper smirked. “Ready?”

Nora nodded uneasily.

Piper whisked her, back first, steering her deftly to the music. The song was jaunty and fast, faster than any she’d danced with Nick, but Piper’s lead was good. Not quite as predictable as Nick’s, but fluid and graceful.

They spun to the music, Piper throwing in an occasional flourish step but nothing too hard. It was…well, strangely easy following her, dancing like this, like she hadn’t in years. Piper was making sure it was easy.

When the song came to an end Nora couldn’t help but feel disappointed, actually. For a moment they lingered, her hand in Piper’s, and every point their bodies touch suddenly seemed to be alight. Just as Nora was about to pull back awkwardly, the music began again and Piper gave her this _look_ , mischievous and happy and questioning, and Nora didn’t have to think about smiling back with a nod.

They danced again. It was _Baby It’s Just You_ , and Nora flashed back to the first time she saw Piper dance, with Valentine at the Third Rail so long ago. Piper was a little more liberal with the flourish steps this time, and took it a little more fluid, feeling Nora out.

_Help me, help me, rescue my heart_

_Save me, save me, from falling apart_

Piper’s eyes snapped up to Nora’s, catching the light, and they looked joyful. Often Nora wondered at how Piper could be so joyful, being an orphan in a cruel world. It was incredible.

_Take me, take me, baby I'm sure_

_You've got the power, you've got the cure._

Nora noticed a tiny twitch to Piper’s expression. _Oh shit, I’m spacing out, aren’t I_? Nora snapped out of whatever expression she’d been making at Piper to give her a friendly smile as the song wound down. When it was finally over, Piper pulled away first, doing a little playful fake curtsy before throwing her arms around Nora’s neck.

Piper held her tightly, not just hugged her but _held_ her, and when she let herself slowly drop back to flat feet Nora moved with her so that for a moment the women were face to face, noses almost brushing, no breath between them.

_Kiss her._

The thought startled Nora. She froze in place, quiet panic behind her eyes, while her heartbeat struck out _kiss her kiss her kiss her_.

Nora pulled back clumsily and put a good foot between them. _Did Piper notice?_

“Thanks Blue. Fun, right?” The reporter said, looking down with a ghost of a blush.

“Yeah.” Nora wasn’t paying attention. Her entire focus was _what the fucking hell was that_.

“Blue?” Piper waved a hand in front of Nora’s face with a quirk of her wrist.

“Yeah, it was fun. You’re…good. Singing, dancing, writing, shooting mostly straight. Anything you don’t do?” Nora righted herself slowly, running a hand through her hair.

“Brag.” Piper winked, ushering them off the ersatz dance floor as the next song started up.

“That’s not even true! All you could talk about when we met was the sanctity of the written word!”

“That’s different, that’s the press!” Piper sat down as Nora did, at the set of chairs her sweater was at, the lukewarm dregs of Nora’s drink forgotten somewhere else.

“Ok, well, here’s your chance. Brag away.” Nora teased.

“Oh no, no way Blue. A lady has to have her mystery.”

Nora snorted, nodded, and sat back in her chair. “Not even about Nat?” Nora teased lightheartedly, tipping her chin at the girl in the corner laughing with her friends. Someone (Ellie?) came by and put two mugs on the table.

“I’m sure Nat’s done something recently worth bragging about, and I’m sure I had nothing to do with it.” Piper quipped back.

“You don’t know, do you?”

“Hm?” Piper looked back at Nora, one eyebrow raised subtly.

“You say you’re no parent to her. And maybe you’re not, in the traditional sense. But I see how careful you are to tell her every day that you love her. I see you going to bed on candy bars so she can have meat and vegetables.”

Piper flushed deeply. She looked almost upset. “I…I’m just trying to give her what I didn’t get, Blue. Isn’t that what we’re all doing? Trying to fuck up less than the last generation?”

“I supposed I have a unique perspective on that.”

“Oh, _shit_ , I didn’t mean –”

“No, no, it’s ok. I didn’t take it like that. You know, you’d think my first Christmas…away?…would be hard. But, it’s not so bad. It’s too different to remind me much of how things used to be.”

Piper nodded, her face returning to a normal color slowly as she sipped her drink.

“Hey Blue, can I ask you something kind of weird?”

“For you that’s a pretty high bar, papergirl.”

Piper chose to ignore that. “Are you….are you happy?”

Of all the things Piper could’ve asked, Nora expected that the least. She took a long moment to answer.

“I…you know, I think I almost am. Is that fucked up?”

“What? No. No, no. You don’t owe the future your misery, Blue.”

 _What a hell of a thing_ , Nora thought, starting in on her second cider.


	29. Christmas at the End of the World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2/2
> 
> I always thought that Nora and Piper would be pretty into Christmas, so here's a second holiday chapter.

Christmas morning, Nora bundled up against the chill of the December air and walked through the quiet twinkling streets of Diamond City. Late last night, during the holiday party, the guards and children of the city strung lights and ornaments throughout the streets, apparently a yearly tradition, so that now on Christmas when the sun rose it rose over a myriad star field of strange holiday cheer.

The day was beautiful, actually. It was so early no one was out but a few guards who’d drawn the short straw, Myrna’s robot peddling a last minute gift to an impatient woman, and Takahashi sporting a jaunty Santa hat, no doubt some child’s clever decoration. Nat’s even, maybe. Seemed like her.

Nora could’ve spent all day out like this, just watching, biding her time until the evening when she’d even been invited to a party at the Dugout that Hawthorne affectionately called “Orphan’s Christmas.”

But Nora couldn’t linger now. No, she’d gotten up early for a reason: spreading Christmas cheer. Already there was a small package pushed through the Valentine Detective Agency mail slot, a handwritten note with two golden cigarette lighters engraved imperfectly, in Nora’s own hand, with “VDA.” She hoped Ellie and Nick would value them, although to be honest the gift giving was really more for her benefit. It made her feel normal.

Now in her hands was a huge package, many times heavier than that one. It would never fit into Piper’s mailbox, so Nora needed a plan.

She walked out to right field with the parcel under one arm, clanging up Sheng’s metal steps. He wasn’t out yet, but with a few quick metallic raps on his shed and he peered out at Nora from the smallest possible crack in the door.

“Listen, do you have any fucking idea how early it is?”

“It’s 7:06am. Merry Christmas, Sheng.” He moved to close the door. “I have a business proposition for you.” Nora said sweetly. She knew he’d take the bait. “It involves Natalie Wright.” She said, for good measure.

Sheng was more than happy to take the handful of caps for delivering a simple package 100 yards. He muttered “sucker” under his breath as he hoisted the package, almost as big as he was, and set out for Publick. Nora smiled fondly, imagining the Wright sisters opening the gift and imaging Sheng getting his own little gift of a smile from Nat on Christmas day.

“See you at the Dugout tonight, Sheng!” Nora called after him happily, and he shifted the weight of the package to give her the bird.

-

“What is it, sis?” Nat cried impatiently, jostling over Piper’s shoulder as she opened the package from Nora, having already sent Sheng on his way with a hot coffee and candy bar.

“Patience, Natalie.” Piper smirked, pulling out the old copies of the Publick that the mysterious gifter had used as padding. _Of course_.

“Who is it from?” She cried again.

“There’s a card here – it’s…it’s from Nora.”

Nat’s face deflated and she sat back down behind her big sister. “Psh. Great, it’s just for you, then.”

Piper didn’t hear her. She was reading the card intently.

> _Merry Christmas, you two._
> 
> _-_ _The Woman Out Of Time_

Piper read it three times over, repeating “you two” in her head to try to get it just the way Nora might have said it, before putting it down on the coffee table and going back to the package. Inside was an almost pristine Nuka Cola truck with a working locking door mechanism, and when Nat turned the key inside was a Nuka Cherry.

But underneath, below another layer of old papers, was Piper’s gift. It was wrapped again, heavy and bulky, but as Piper drew it out of the box she guessed immediately what it was, and when she peeled the crate paper off of it her suspicions were confirmed.

It was a beautiful baby blue American Paper Company typewriter, newly painted and without a single missing key, although when Piper looked closer she noticed the W was in fact an upside-down M and the Q was an O with a little hand-painted tail.

Below the last row of keys was a nearly perfect hand-lettered “PROPERTY OF PUBLICK OCCURRENCES” in black paint.

Piper shook her head, warding off tears before they formed.

“Hey sis, you didn’t get everything.” Nat said casually, peering into the box while opening her Nuka Cherry.

Piper perked up and looked back inside. Staring at her from underneath the last of the newspapers were six perfectly unopened boxes of Yum Yum Deviled Eggs.

Nora knew they were her favorite, ever since finding her under-dresser stash.

It was going to take all Piper’s willpower to not make herself sick on them.


	30. Swearing In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A one-chapter update for today, and the last for a few days while I edit upcoming chapters.
> 
> Nora and Piper head to Sanctuary for some serious business.

Piper stumbled in the new shiny set of T-60 Power Armor as she and Nora arrived at Oberland Station on their way to Sanctuary. It was December 27th, and Nora had promised Piper she’d be back in Diamond City for New Year’s with Nat but at the rate she was moving in the armor it was definitely a stretch.

At first Nora thought the stumble was a misstep; if was after all Piper’s first time in Power Armor, and even though she was apparently an incredibly fast learner she also had a tendency to run into walls in the thing, at least at first. She also had a tendency to forgo Nora’s instruction and “learn by doing.”

But no, Piper hadn’t misjudged her step. She was shocked.

“Blue! This place looks amazing! The last time I was here it was one old switching station and some chicken wire fence!”

Nora beheld the place now. Three towers, with the largest in the back serving as a community house on the bottom floor and living quarters above. Turrets, guard towers, and enough private rooms for three times the people. Nora was proud of the work, although she only directed and designed – it was the Oblerands who did everything really – and it made her think the women would be on-board with the Minutemen when she asked. Which is half the reason they stopped; so Nora could get a yes from them before springing everything on Preston and the Concord Five.

The Oberlands both hailed her excitedly; their junkyard dog Hepp barked along with their waving until Dogmeat bounded up to him and started that sniffing ritual they always did.

Nora started towards her friends but realized immediately Piper wasn’t behind her. When she turned around, Piper was frozen to the spot, arms waving slightly.

“Um, Pipes? Something wrong?”

“No, no, not at all! I was just taking it in. Wow, look at this. This place looks incredible. There’s even a doghouse for Hepp. The placement of the turrets is…great, perfect.”

“Piper.”

“Yeah, I’m impressed. You’ve done so much in only a month.”

“Piper.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re stuck, aren’t you?”

“Yes, Blue, yes I am stuck.”

And Nora went to hoist her foot out from where it was stuck as the Oberlands had their laugh.

-

“Well that’s fantastic news!” Preston boomed, nearly dropping his musket in surprise. Nora had called the whole settlement into the public house, Rosa’s old place, to tell them she wanted to start the Minutemen again. “And Oberland is already with us?”

“With us, and ready to start a supply line north to south. That’s going to be our lifeline. But, I meant what I said, Preston. I have my own reasons for doing this. I need help as much as I can give.”

“We all have our own reasons, kid. You don’t have to apologize for that.” Mama Murphy cut in a little too calmly. It would seem the order of the day was a downer.

“So, what are the next steps, General?”

“ _General_?” Marcy interrogated from the doorway.

“The leader of the Minutemen has always held the rank of General.” Preston explained calmly, turning back to Nora. “Now it’s up to you to make it more than an empty title.” He said solemnly.

“Can we start with like, Major, and work from there?” Nora joked. “Ok, first order, how do I swear in?”

“Swear in? I…uh…I don’t know.”

“Well, we need a ceremony Preston. Make something up.”

Preston was clearly too pleased. He thought for a moment. “Do you, Nora Wells, accept the responsibility of the title of the General of the Minutemen, and do you promise to serve the Minutemen as best and as honestly as you can so that we may always help those in need at a minute’s notice?”

“I do.” Nora nodded, shook his hand, and took the floor.

“I want to ask everyone here to join us. You are under no obligation to do so, but if you want to be a part of this it would make me proud. So I’m going to ask you all, and if you want to join, say so. Is there anyone here who wishes to join the Minutemen and who…” Nora paused, recalling Preston’s phrasing “…promises to serve the needs of the Minutemen as best and as honestly as they can so that we may help those in need at a minute’s notice?”

Nora looked around the room, all faces turned towards hers with various expressions of hope, skepticism, insecurity.

A long moment passed.

“I do.” Piper’s voice rang out strong and clear, and a simple smile passed between her and Nora.

“I do, mum.” Codsworth twirled resolutely.

“I do!” Hoss husked deeply, hefting his rifle.

And Sheffield spoke up, and Sturges, and finally both Jun and even Marcy. Even Mac looked ready to speak up, but held his tongue.

“I’m too old to do much anymore, kid. But I’ll help if I can.” Mama Murphy finished, and Dogmeat barked happily at her almost like he’d understood.

“Ok, listen everyone. We are going to avoid the mistake the Minutemen made the first time.” Nora spoke with crisp authority now. “We will not overextend ourselves. I saw this in the war a hundred times – groups in China, in Mexico, in Alaska getting cut straight through the middle because of aggressive growth. We need to strengthen Sanctuary, and Oberland, and make them places people will want to live. I’m talking about individual living spaces with roofs and plumbing and defense and power. We need to make this a place people will flock to before we commit to defending the entire Commonwealth. And we have to prove we can turn back intruders; prove we’re stronger and smarter this time. Preston, I know there are a lot of people reaching out for help right now, and we will help them. But it won’t serve to weaken ourselves while doing it. We need trade lines. We need to get Carla and Drumlin to hook up with our routes. We need trained men and women. And we need laws. That, at least, I can do.”

“Well I’ll be damned, General.” Preston barked with a laugh.

“And, Preston. Um, _Lieutenant General_ Garvey.” His eyes went wide. “Time for you to make it more of an empty title.” Nora smirked. “I want you out there with me, I want people to see your face, know your name.” She turned to Sturges. “Sturges, we need your expertise. We have to start attracting people, get our message out. You think you could do a shortwave radio tower, something like that?”

“Oh sure thing, I can build anything you want.”

“Ok, good. Piper.”

“ _General_?”

Nora smiled, a true and big smile. “I want you to head back to Diamond City. I don’t want us and Preston all out in the field at once.”

“So I’m supposed to write a puff piece on the Minutemen now, huh?” Piper teased, putting her hands on her hips.

“I wouldn’t ever presume to tell you what to write, Piper.” Nora smiled again and then got serious. “I swear to you right now, the Minutemen will never pressure the press or attempt to control it, however the stories make us look. But if you _wanted_ to do an article, I’m sure we’d all make ourselves available for a quote or two.” Nora finished, looking around the room to both enthusiastic and reluctant nods before turning back to Piper and mouthing a silent _thank you_.

And Piper knew, it wasn’t for the story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The is the last chapter before an interlude of 5 months.
> 
> In story time.
> 
> Slightly faster in real time I hope.
> 
> Kidding! New chapters coming up soon.


	31. Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/2 of updates
> 
> Our girls' 5 month wait has ended, so here are some new chapters! I hope to update consistently until the end, which I have decided will be at Chapter 50 (or 51 on here, since I had one non-chapter).
> 
> What is Nora even up to after 5 months?

5 MONTHS LATER

 

Nora made her way through the small throng of people gathered at Mercer Safehouse, her workers and the Railroad agents and her friends, all smiling and shaking hands, parting their ranks to let Nora a precious hour or two of quiet in her own room, before tomorrow.

_Tomorrow, when I go into the Institute. When I get Shaun back._

Nora could feel herself shaking. She’d never been this nervous before. Scared, sure – she’d been scared like hell. But this feeling of anticipation – feeling her whole life come to a sharp point just one sunrise away – was foreign to her. She had never had this much to lose. Maybe this is what Nate had felt like before a big move in the military. Well, she never did ask him.

And she didn’t want to think about it. Tonight, Nora wanted to be alone, safe, warm, warding off tomorrow. Which meant she was missing Piper.

Piper who was fifty feet away, finishing dinner Nora guessed, so close she could peek out and probably see her. Still not close enough. But Nora knew Piper would come find her. They had an understanding about this. About being there for each other.

So Nora waited, absently petting Dogmeat’s head on her lap. Her thoughts drifted back over the last five months. So, so much had changed in her life.

Christmastime had turned quickly into a foggy, raining Spring, which had rolled just as quickly into Summer, a bright and muggy June that made Nora think of home. And in this time the Minutemen had blossomed, from two struggling settlements to five fully supplied outposts, and then to ten, flush with novice militia men and hopeful families eager for a roof over their heads and food on their tables. There had been so much growth in fact that Nora was thinking about putting a schoolhouse up in Sanctuary. She could hardly believe the progress that’d been made. It seemed people here were hungry for change.

And now, in the doggish middle of June, Curie and Ada whirred along happily at Red Rocket, marveling together over human nature and the lack of sanitation in the Commonwealth. MacCready was already making plans to bring Duncan – strong, healthy, cured – to Sanctuary on a caravan, surprising no one and Nora least of all with his desire to stick around for a little while longer. Preston was scrambling around newly formed settlements, recruiting men and planning for his ridiculous Castle takeover idea that Nora knew she’d have to entertain at some point. If she came back.

Nora found herself a full agent of the Railroad, Agent Wanderer, a name that was Deacon’s idea, his ironic jab at her famous laser focus. She had been running packages between settlements with Piper for the last few months, along with various other inconveniences.

Oh, and Piper. Indomitable, kind Piper. The paper had only grown more popular on tales of the Minutemen’s ever-expanding reach and on her unlikeliest of exploits with the Woman Out Of Time, and Minutemen caravans had begun to carry the paper every week, selling so many Nora ended up having to fix that spare printing press to help the Publick keep up with Spring sales. Nora hadn’t gotten the time with Piper that she wanted – these days, it was never enough – but they spent the last few months travelling together on and off, Piper even showing up to one or another settlement when Nora had been too busy to come by Diamond City. Things between them had only grown, and even though at times Piper seemed to be pulling back, their relationship never really cooled. Nora heard the jokes, and the rumors, and wondered if they sent a thrill through the reporter like they did through her. These days being with the Wright sisters felt more like a family than anything Nora could remember. Which scared her: how fast her memories of Shaun were fading. Sometimes, from the back, Nora could almost mistake Nat for him.

Natalie, 13 years old just last month, and had begun her apprenticeship. It was Diamond City Maintenance and Repair with old Abbott, and when Nora found out she didn’t try to hide the bloom of pride in her cheeks.

It was the last thing that had pulled Nora out of her anxiousness, her feeling of impending doom mixed with an almost fevered excitement. It was just two weeks ago. Since then everything had been Mercer and the teleporter, her focus narrowing into practical tunnel vision. Mercer was cantilevered between crumbling buildings only a half-hour from Diamond City at a place that used to be called Hangman’s Alley, before Nora and Piper had cleared it and taken down and buried what was left of the rotting corpses of settlers and traders hung on meat hooks as warnings to passerbys.

Nora smiled to herself remembering Des’s surprise that she’d chosen that place, out of the five or six possibilities, for the safehouse location. Nora had argued that it was close to centers of trade, along existing provisioner routes for security, had limited access points, and provided great coverage for covert package shipping. Hiding in plain sight, as it were. If Des knew that her real motivation was proximity to Diamond City, and therefore Piper and Nat, she didn’t say anything. And so here they were – all dozen and a half of them, Agents and Minutemen and Nora and Piper, on the night before the storm.

On the cusp of seeing Shaun again. Tonight, it almost seemed possible. She was really getting her son back. Would he like her? Would he like Nat, or Piper, or – ?

There was a knock at the door, and Nora didn’t need to look up to know.

“Hey Pipes.”

“Hey.” Piper said softly, gingerly almost, shutting the door behind her again and with it, the warm light and sound of conversation outside. “Do you need some more time alone?”

Nora smiled at that. “No, no. Come here.” Nora gestured and Dogmeat leapt from the bed to curl in the corner.

Piper came to sit next to her on the edge of the bed and let one hand fall against her back without really thinking about it. She could feel the fast thrum of Nora’s heartbeat and the faint tremble in her body.

“How are…how are you doing, Blue?”

“Scared. No, nervous. I never get nervous.”

Piper nodded, rubbing in gentle and soothing circles on Nora’s back.

“We need to talk about what happens next.”

“Ok.” Piper said tentatively, not knowing where this was going.

“You know we don’t know how I’m getting back.”

“Blue –”

“Or, if.”

Piper fell silent. She couldn’t even argue with that, not now.

“I want you to stay here, at Mercer, while I’m gone. If I can choose my out, I’m going to aim for something in the middle of nowhere. It will be inconvenient as hell but we don’t know if the Institute can track the movement out, and if they can I won’t lead them to anything. Not even Diamond City. If they’re angry, and ready for a fight, they might be bold enough to follow me even there. Either way, I’ll come back here. And if they do follow me here we can burn the safehouse. You have to be ready to run, Piper.”

“I’ll be ready to fight.”

“I mean it, we don’t know what could happen.”

“I know you’ll come back to me.” Piper said resolutely, but instead of stiffening Nora actually relaxed more into her touch.

Nora let a long silence fall between them, trying to control her stuttering breath. Finally she broke it. “It’s like I almost forgot about him.” Piper raised an eyebrow but stayed silent. “The Minutemen, the Railroad, Cruz, MacCready’s son, Valentine being back – everything that’s been happening, I’ve been so distracted. Or…not distracted. I’ve been living in this place, like it’s my real life. But now, thinking about seeing him again. I’m excited Piper, I’m so damn _excited_ to see his face. My son’s face.” Nora smiled wan in the lantern light. “It doesn’t seem real.”

Five months ago a confession like that would’ve made Nora’s teeth hurt, but now saying something like that to Piper felt almost natural.

“You should be excited, Blue. When you get him back they’ll be so much to do, so much to show him. You’ll have to show him the whole world. After everything, you both deserve that.”

The survivor nodded, looking down again at her hands. “It all seems pretty unlikely, doesn’t it.”

Piper laughed, a true laugh. “Yes, it all really does.”

“I can’t wait for you to meet him.”

Piper’s eyebrow shot up and warmth rushed to her cheeks. She waited for Nora to hedge by saying _“…and Nat, and Valentine.”_ But she didn’t.

“I can’t wait to meet him, Blue. Not entirely sure I could deal with two of you, frankly, but for you I’d give it a try.”

“Oh, ha. I’m sure he’s nothing like me.”

“He’s half of you. You’re going to have _plenty_ to talk about.” Piper reassured gently, so gently, rubbing those circles into Nora’s back. The taller woman let her face relax, looking like a dog being scratched behind the ear. They stayed that way for long minutes, Nora’s mind spinning and spinning and Piper just trying to be _there_.

“I’d say I hope so, but that seems like too much of a stretch. I have to make it there and back first.”

The contentment on Piper’s face faded to a grimace. “I hate this, you know.” She barely sounded like herself. “Always waiting for you. Watching you go out into the unknown and wondering if you’ll come back at all.”

It was the first time Piper had ever spoken like this, as if Nora was mortal. As if she could die.

Nora reached out and took Piper’s free hand in her own. She didn’t bother lying to herself about why. It felt so good – right – to hold Piper warmly like that.

“I know.” Nora said, just as softly, looking back at the shorter woman. She let the pad of her thumb run over the webbing of Piper’s hand with gentle and steady circles. Piper’s eyes closed with pleasure and she swayed almost imperceptibly towards Nora as she spoke.

“The Glowing Sea. The Courser. Now the Institute.” Piper was serious but something about the ridiculousness of that laundry list sent a smile between the women. “So, you have to promise me you’re coming back.”

“Just like old times?”

“Has it ever failed to work?”

“I promise.”

“Say it again.” Piper’s hand stopped moving against Nora’s back. The air in the room changed and Nora could swear she felt Piper’s heartbeat like a pulse in her own body from where their hands were touching.

“ _I promise_.”

The voice inside Nora that had been torturing her since Christmas screamed again, _kiss her. Hold her_. Nora let the sound of her thumping heart and the sickness in her stomach drown it out.

Piper blinked as if roused from sleep, broke eye contact, and slowly, almost reluctantly, stood up.

“Can you sleep, Blue?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Then I’ll stay. As long as you need.”

Nora looked at her curiously, mind working slowly. And before she could really realize what was happening Piper had grabbed an old comic book, taken out a candy bar, and settled into the ratty red armchair at the corner of the bed.

She stayed there until Nora finally drifted off, reading silently and looking up every few minutes furtively to check on her. She stayed there afterwards, watching Nora sleep fitfully. She stayed until she herself drifted off, almost too late to be the early morning hours, comic book sliding out of her hand, dreaming of men dressed in white deep, deep underground.


	32. Flipping the Switch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2/2 of update
> 
> Just to reaffirm my tag selection here, there WILL be sex in this story. Lots of sexy sex. At least two sexes. However there will also be the Institute, which is unsexy. Stick with the story though because our favorite ladies are burning their slow burn a little faster in the next 5ish chapters. Sexy! Vague!

The platform was cold against Nora’s feet, which was ridiculous because she was wearing shoes. _I must be really fucking nervous_.

Des chain smoked. Tinker Tom muttered to himself while he fiddled with the console. Piper stood stiff and awkward next to Caretaker looking almost as stressed as he did. Dogmeat paced and whined, not understanding what was happening but understanding it was bad.

Deacon’s face was unreadable.

That morning the other Agents and Minutemen had left for the relative safety of other settlements or safehouses. Now it was just them, flipping the switch.

Nora wore what she had been told was an Institute uniform denoting that she was a low-ranking human worker. It almost fit. How Carrington got it he wouldn’t say, but it was evidently a few years old. Nora absently wondered how often they updated their branding. Deliverer burned a hole in her pocked where it was hidden; it, and the 12 rounds in the clip, were all she had besides her wedding ring, cold and foreign on her hand. Nate’s sat on his gravestone now instead of in her pocket, and Nora vaguely wondered if her own would find its way to her headstone as well or if any of her would ever be seen again.

She had no food, no water, no Stimpacks. She was going in blind and deaf and dumb, at the mercy of her fortune. And she had never been very lucky.

Between drags Des rumbled off the plan again and again. She was probably doing it to help calm everyone down, and maybe it was working, but not on Nora.

“Patriot devised a method to communicate with us one-way. The plan hinges on us closing the loop and using this method to contact him back. Tom has encrypted a message for Patriot’s eyes only.”

“Once he sees it, he’ll contact me. I know, Des.” Nora finished wearily.

“Until you make contact, and probably after, you’ll have to stay in their good graces. You need to _infiltrate_ them.”

Nora nodded absently.

“It’s best to stick as close to the truth as possible. And you’re going to have to think on your feet. You have the holotape – just plug it into any Institute terminal and wait for the reply.” Des paused, taking a quick, nervous drag. “Become one of them. Say whatever you have to. If you have to stay longer than we anticipated, try not to eat any processed food. Ask for fresh products or food from the surface. Tinker Tom has been right about stranger things.”

“Ohhh man, do NOT eat the food. That’s how they _get you_.” Tom cut in, hands still flying over the keyboard.

“Not helping, Tom.” Des said seriously, blowing out smoke.

“Remember, this frequency will only work once.” Tom spoke up excitedly. “You-know-who doesn’t make the same mistake twice.”

“Oh well, no sweat then.” Nora tried to joke, but only sounded angry and stressed.

“Caretaker, Deacon, and Friday will stay here until you return.” Dogmeat whined loudly from Piper’s heels, where he waited anxiously. “And Agent Dogmeat, of course.” Des almost let herself joke. “We will wait 36 hours for you. If you haven’t arrived in that time we will consider you lost and I will pull Deacon back to HQ.” Des finished softly.

“I understand.”

“Are we ready for this light show Des?” Tom called out. “All systems are go. Or, mostly go. Yeah, go, go! So stand still, we gotta lock in all those molecules of yours – hopefully we won’t miss any, there’s only you know, 60 trillion of them!” Tom moved over the control panel in a flurry and a heavy, grinding machine noise filled the air.

“Do whatever you can to gain their trust!” Des yelled over the sound. “Lie, tell them what you want to hear! Make up a cover story and sell it! Just get all the information you can. About synths, about the Institute’s plan.” _What about my son_ , Nora thought “This is it, Wanderer. Good luck. And godspeed.”

Nora looked down, at Piper, who stood before her like a deer in the headlights, stricken, completely unready. Nora could only assume she looked the same, but automatically she nodded for the go-ahead.

It was Piper who shouted out for them to wait. She jogged up onto the platform and stopped right before Nora so close the taller woman could feel the heat from her body.

“You promised.” Piper whispered, her reminder. “You’re going to get your son back.”

Nora nodded. She leaned forward, her lips finding the crown of Piper’s head. Briefly their arms held one another, and Piper’s hands folded around hers as she carefully pressed something into her palm, a small package that Nora had to look down at and scrutinize to realize was a pack of gumdrops.

“Something to keep you sharp.” Piper whispered, giving her this odd scared little smile. Nora opened her mouth but just then some words were shouted from down below and Piper was receding from her looking like she was being torn away.

Nora wanted to say something, the words were right there, almost reaching Piper, the words that had been haunting her for weeks now, everything she could never bring herself to say, and they were almost out, she was speaking, but the taste of hot metal and burning rubber was in her mouth and her words were lost in an airless wind as blue light filled her vision.

“ _Save them. Nobody else can_.”

 _Crack_.

Everything before her vanished.

Back on the surface of the earth Tom was shouting, and Des was shouting, and Caretaker was running, and Piper had screamed Nora’s name as the teleporter came apart in front of them in a hot ball of fire, and Tom just kept repeating that she was through but there was no way to know, they all knew it, and Piper’s own body hurt like it was she herself that had blown apart and she clutched at her chest until she realized she was on her knees in the wet dirt and the ringing in her ears was all she was aware of.


	33. Heart of the Hellion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/2
> 
> Nora infiltrates the Institute. With gumdrops.

The gumdrop felt a little stale, to be honest, but the cherry flavor was miraculously well preserved. Nora rolled it around in her mouth, thinking about the taste and about the woman who handed it to her about a lifetime ago. Would Piper believe this? Any of it? _Father_ and…and Shaun…and…well, it was impossible. All of it.

> Walking in from the teleporter chamber, Nora was chilled bone-deep by the humming silence. The complex was empty. Absolutely abandoned. If she didn’t know better she’s think she was _expected_.
> 
> Which is when the voice started.
> 
> “Hello.”

The second gumdrop was orange. Nora thought about the echoing words of Father, the echoing light in this shiny plastic tomb. She thought about legitimately just pretending to believe him. It would be easier. Maybe she could just….never leave. Or never go back. Go somewhere else.

> “…Shaun?”
> 
> “Huh? Yes…I’m Shaun.” _Oh my god, oh my god._
> 
> Every hair stood up the nape of Nora’s neck. Every fiber of her being could see it was a setup. She ignored the feeling. He was _right in front of her._
> 
> “Shaun. Oh my god, it’s really you. I’m…I’m your mom.”
> 
> His face twisted in fear. “Father…What’s going on? What’s happening?”
> 
> _No, no no no. Stay with me sweetie._ “Shaun, I’m going to get you out of here. We have to go.”
> 
> “I don’t know you! Go away! Father! Father, help me!”
> 
> No.
> 
> “There’s someone here! Help me!”
> 
> No.
> 
> _No._

The third gumdrop was pineapple. Old classic. Nora held it up to the light and watched it transluce, almost like a piece of amber, a record frozen in time. She thought about the strange, strange meeting she’d just left with Patriot, explaining a guerrilla war to a teenage boy in a bright white broom closet at one-thirty in the morning.

> “I kept sending synths to the surface hoping someone would help them.”
> 
> “Why are you doing this Liam?”
> 
> “You don’t trust me. That’s ok, I understand. To be honest, at first, I just wanted to see if I could get away with it. It was a challenge, you know?” _Unreal. He had…he had no idea what he was doing. The Railroad is operating based on this kid with a hobby._
> 
> “But then I realized the synths are really just like us, except without any freedom.”
> 
> _Who the fuck says we have freedom? And yet he sounds so sincere._ “You saved a lot of synths.”
> 
> “A lot to take in.” _God, how young and cossetted he looked_. “But wait, with you in the picture I have this idea – ”

The fourth gumdrop was green. Green apple, lime? Unlike the cherry, whatever it had been was lost to time. Nora’s thoughts drifted back to Piper. The feel of her hands brushing Nora’s, up there on the platform. The feel of her lips on Nora’s, if she’d ever had the courage to kiss her.

> Had she loved Piper? She couldn’t remember now. She couldn’t remember anything. She must have, though, because it was the thought of Piper that was only thing anchoring her heart in her chest.

The fifth gumdrop was the last one in the pack. But – _no_ , Nora put it back in the decrepit wax paper it had come from, folded the package over, and slipped it into her pocket. She might need the last one later. The anticipation of the first four were maybe why she was even still here in the first place. She still had to survive the night here, pretend to wake up at a reasonable time, leave late in the morning with a firm handshake and an invented facial expression and _thank holy god_ she used to be a lawyer or they’re’d never been a way to sell _I want so badly to believe you’re not terrifying_ as _I’m inspired by your trust in me_.


	34. Tea and Sympathy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2/2  
> While Nora is deep undercover and deep underground, Piper and Desdemona hash some things out.
> 
> I wanted to do a Des chapter, so this goes a little off-cannon and into her backstory, but I hope you enjoy.

There came a gentle knock at the door.

“Miss Friday?” A soft voice asked. It was Caretaker.

Piper ignored him.

Again, a knock came. “Friday, Des wants to see you. It’s…it’s not urgent. But I think you should go.”

Piper waited until she heard his soft footsteps creak away from her door and into the night. She’d go – she had to, she was going mad – but she’s hate it the whole time. On principle. She’d hate everything that didn’t have Blue in it on principle.

When Piper found herself knocking on Des’s unlit door some time later, she felt as if she’d sleepwalked there. Everything was fuzzy; everything felt like it hurt. Her ears – her brain – was still ringing from the explosion. That flash of light, terrible and fantastic.

“Come in, Friday.” Des said almost welcomingly.

Piper did, Dogmeat trotting at her heals exactly where he’d been since the morning. Piper sat down without really looking at Des and certainly not in the eyes.

“How are you holding up, Agent Friday?”

“I’m just tired.”

“Are you? Well, I might expect that.” Des said, not dismissively though, flicking her cigarette absentmindedly. Her tone suggested compassion. “I think you’ve been through quite enough today. More than the rest of us, except maybe Wanderer.”

Piper lifted her eyes at that, and was surprised to find Des’s seemed almost as sunken and baggy as her own must’ve.

“I don’t really want…I don’t want to talk about what happened.”

“Ok. But you should know, there’s no other agent I’d rather have sent on this. Tom is sure she got through ok. She’s going to come out the other side of this.” Des’s voice was…almost raw, unfamiliar. “Not the least because our contingency plan is utter shit.”

“I don’t really have a contingency plan.” Piper said absently.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” Des said, snuffing out her cigarette and turning square to Piper. “I need to ask you, and I need you to tell me the truth. Know that this conversation will not leave this room.”

Piper focused on Des now. She had no bandwidth for worry or really emotion of any kind. “Ok.”

“Were…are you and Wanderer sleeping together?”

“What? No.” Piper perked at the accusation, rising a little in her chair. “No, what…why would you think that?”

Desdemona shot a look at Piper that told her.

“The only man on Earth who can lie to me is Deacon, and only half the time. I’ve survived this long on reading people – even synths. I’ve been watching you two since you first walked into HQ. And I have concerns. About your ability to operate without Wanderer. About your emotional…entanglement.”

“Just mine, though? Not hers?” Piper was getting angry now. _Good, that’s an emotion. Be angry._

“She’s not here to berate.” Des said wryly, half a grin cracking her face as she stood up slowly from her chair and turned to walk across the room. “I wish she were.”

Piper softened slightly.

“The truth is, this is only the beginning of the Railroad’s problems, Agent. And you’re…you’re good. I need to know you’re sharp. And…”

“And what? Not fucking?” Piper let her anger bubble back up. But Des only replied by shaking her head. She silently reached for a coffee kettle that had been warming on a hotplate in the corner.

“Not compromised, emotionally. At least, not long-term. I know today has been hard on you. I know how you feel about her.”

Piper stood up. “You don’t know anything.”

“I do. You should know that you can take the time you need, if you need it. But that we’re going to need you, soon. And Nora is going to need you.”

“And you plan on inspiring me back into the field with…this little goddamn pep talk?”

“And tea.”

“What?” Piper asked, a bit dumbfounded.

“Tea.” Des said, plain as day, as she turned around with a coffee cup in each hand. She sat one down in front of Piper, who sagged back into her chair, and took one for herself as she sat down again. “Please, don’t stand on ceremony.”

That earned only the slightest smile from Piper, who did in fact sit back down and indulge in the cup of hot tea. She let the hot steam tickle her nose; her favorite thing about coffee, too. After a while, Des spoke again.

“I did ask you in here to see how you were holding up. But I also invited you in here to tell you that I think it wise you hold onto your feelings for Nora.”

“What?”

“It’s clear she has feelings for you. The nature of them, I don’t know. I’m sure you know better. But it’s clear to me she’s not ready for it. Any of it.”

Piper put down her mug, a scowl darkening her features again.

“The Railroad needs their Agent Wanderer. Dozens – hundreds of lives – depend on her success, her access to the Institute. The way Preston tells it, it’s the same story with the Minutemen. And she’s never even had time to mourn. She’s been ripped from one objective to the next with hardly time to breathe, let alone live. I know we’re just as guilty. But we _need_ her. So…I know what I’m asking is an overstep. But please, don’t ask her for more, not now. We both know she won’t be able to say no to you.”

Piper was shocked. Was Des asking her to stay away from Blue? Or telling her that Blue had feelings for her? Or both? Or –

“You look upset.” Des said, almost with concern.

“You think she – ?” Piper asked suddenly, and stopped abruptly. It’s not at all what she meant to say but it was out too fast to take back.

“Yes.”

“You’re talking like you’re sure she’s coming back.”

“I am. I have to be.” Des nodded, reaching into her coat for another cigarette. Piper just looked dead ahead, eyes unfocused, fatigue suffusing every bone. “And god willing, she’ll come back with a little boy in tow. And that, Piper, will be quite more than enough for anyone.” She glanced back to Piper, wan in the candle light. “I guess this little talk probably did not do much to lighten your mood, did it Agent?”

“You made me angry. That was an improvement.”

It was Des’s turn to half-chuckle as she placed another ancient cigarette between her lips and deftly lit it in a single second of illumination that cast her face yellow and fiery.

“Bum a smoke, Des?”

The older woman shuffled in her coat again, drew out another thin cigarette, and handed it to Piper who placed it between her lips. Another spark; another face cast in flickering yellow light.

“So, I guess I owe you an interview.” Des shrugged, exhaling smoke.

“What?” Piper said with genuine surprise, looking up into Des’s dark but amused eyes.

“Deacon told you how he got into this, right? The University Point Deathclaws incident?”

Piper nodded, still in shock. “So that was true?”

“Mostly, as near as I can tell. Thought you might want to know how I found the Railroad, too. Off the record, of course.”

“Of course, y-yeah. Des, I would love to know.” Piper unconsciously patted her pockets for her steno as Des settled down into her chair.

“When I was 16 I got pregnant. The father, I don’t know that I even remember his name now – he never knew. Left on a caravan weeks before I found out. My mother was livid with me. She saw me becoming just like her – young, a mother, alone. But I had him. My son. I named him Sam.”

“What was he like?”

“Strapping. Huge! Not like me at all. Golden hair though. My hair; my eyes. He was my little man. He was everything. We were so close, we lived together even after he was grown. We’d come up from the south when he was a teenager and ended up with our own caravan guard outfit working out of Bunker Hill. Good business, fairly safe. We had a good little life.”

“What was it like, back then?”

“Bigger, safer. Even then there were whispers about the Institute; about Synths. News of the Broken Mask had travelled the whole wasteland of course. I didn’t know it at the time, but the Railroad was operating out of Bunker. It was taking shape. And then it happened.”

Des paused, took another drag. Piper sipped her tea without looking away.

“Something changed. Sam became distant. Harsher, less able to connect. He was maybe twenty at the time and I thought, maybe he was rebelling. Maybe he needed away from his mother. But I didn’t know what to do, so I just tried to show him love. Take care of him. It was like this for months. Until one night I woke up with a gun in my face.”

Piper froze, breath held, attention rapt.

“It was Sam. He had tears streaming down his face; he was shaking, babbling. I was so confused but…never scared. Not then, not of my Sam. I eventually talked him down. I held him in my arms all night while he told me he wasn’t my son. He wasn’t really Sam. He didn’t expect I’d be like this, loving. It wasn’t until the next morning I realized what he meant.

“A man I didn’t know at the time knocked on my door in the morning. A young man then went by a different name, but you know him now as Old Man Stockton. He told me he had been watching Sam and knew what happened the night before. He told me Sam was a synth. The rest…it went fast. I always forget that part when talking to a recovery. It went very fast.

“I never really got a chance to mourn my first son. I never knew if he was captured or killed – neither did Sam. I guess part of me wanted to pretend. But the Sam I had; that’s the one I loved. For better or worse.”

Des paused again, another drag, another sip of tea. Piper was still practically holding her breath.

“Wha-what happened?”

“We joined the Railroad on the spot. He was killed in a raid about…12 years ago now. After that I gave up everything but the Railroad. Everything I had, every tie, everything.”

“Des…I…”

“Not an uplifting story.” Des said with a grimace, blowing smoke out her nose into the dim room. “But it was the truth. I heard you like that.”

“I…thank you.”

Des looked into Piper’s eyes, illuminated by candle light and two burning cigarette butts. She nodded, snuffed her cigarette, and stood up.

“Get some sleep agent; I wasn’t joking when I said we needed you sharp.”

Piper nodded, snuffing out her own cigarette before turning to leave.

She stopped. Turning back and facing Des, she gave the older woman a silent hug. Des, for her part, let herself hug back very gently.

Piper let herself out.


	35. Homecoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/2 short and harsh

The ruins of the Commonwealth Institute of Technology were as ominous and uninviting as ever, bones of the old world, bones of Nora’s life. When she had snapped back to them in the cold blue light she’d doubled over, thrown up, and started walking.

She shuffled all the way back to Mercer like a sleepwalker, right up to the front gates, and stopped before them. The streets were empty. If she passed Raiders, they paid her no mind. She tilted her head back and stared at the guard tower that loomed over her, empty in the angry midday sun. Two missile turrets puttered menacingly on either side.

It had been 27 hours since she had been teleported to the Institute. She didn’t want to worry anyone by waiting too long to come back.

_I wonder if Deacon is still here. I wonder what they’re saying about me right now, the possibility of my untimely death, the failure of the plans._

_I wonder if those turrets are going to kill me this time._

“Blue!” A shout rang out above her, echoing off the decaying brick walls of the alleyway.

_I wonder what I’m going to tell people. Maybe I shouldn’t say anything. Can I get away without speaking a word? Just never speak again?_

“Oh my god, Blue, Blue.” A woman in a red coat burst through the heavy steel door separating her from Mercer. The structure creaked and shuttered with the force. Her running made patta-tat-tat sounds on the wet cement.

_Probably not. They’ll notice Shaun isn’t here. They’ll make me talk. Maybe I can stall them._

“B-Blue…Nora?” The woman had stopped in front of her, the pattering of her feet silent. She stood uncomfortably close.

Nora looked down into Piper’s scared hazel eyes.

It was Piper, the woman was Piper. Of course she was.

If Nora had been paying attention she would’ve seen Piper look around feverishly, scan Nora up and down for damage, and in a moment realize Shaun wasn’t there and wasn’t coming and be just _crestfallen_.

“Hey Piper.” Nora said, but it came out chapped and silent. She hadn’t used her voice since waking.

“Blue, I…are you…” Piper reached out to Nora, fingers brushing her upper arm. Nora recoiled from the touch like she was burned. Piper’s eyes flashed in fear and despair, tears welling up. “Blue, it’s ok. You’re ok. You’re…”

Nora snapped her eyes to Piper’s, alight with rage, and the smaller woman fell silent.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean – I…Blue. Nora.” Piper moved her head to recapture Nora’s gaze. “What happened? Tell me what happened.”

“Shaun is a synth.”

“ _What_?” Piper’s reply was breathless. She looked a million years older.

“The Shaun I saw in Kellogg’s head, he’s a synth. A copy of my…s-son.”

Nora stood as motionless as stone even as her voice cracked, dry and empty.

“Blue.” Piper soothed, leaning slightly in to Nora but not reaching out again.

“My son is sixty years old. It had been sixty years. As long as I’ve been awake he’s been sixty years old, and he’s been the Director of the Institute.”

Nora’s face and body remained unnaturally rigid. She didn’t blink or look at Piper. Her ears were ringing so much she couldn’t hear Piper gasp, didn’t notice her clasping her hand over her mouth, didn’t see her tears falling, didn’t care.

Nora began to walk away.

“Wait, Nora. There’s one more thing.” Piper said in a pained voice, already hating herself for what she was about to do. “Do you have a Geiger counter?”

Even through the fog, Nora could hear Piper’s heart shatter in those six little words.

But she just nodded emptily. She understood. She couldn’t blame Piper, not really.

“Mine is in the shop.” Nora said without inflection as she straightened her spine and walked past Piper into the alleyway.

Caretaker and Deacon looked on silently from near the fire, immobile. Nora ignored them.

She took out Deliverer, popped out the clip, cleared the chamber, and dropped it into the mud at her feet as she walked up to her room.

Dogmeat trotted after her on the wet earth slowly, then stopped at the foot of the stairs and whimpered and did not follow.

The sound of the door closing, almost unnaturally soft, made Piper’s eyes burn again. She pulled her press cap down over her brow, wiped her nose on her sleeve, picked up the gun, and walked quickly into one of the makeshift shelters in the shadows of the broken city.


	36. Three Weeks of Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2/2  
> And now we arrive at Nora's low point in this story. This is a hard chapter, but everything after this is on the upwards, or at least the net upwards. Our Sole Survivor will heal, and become strong, but she's got to get to rock bottom first.

“She’s broken, man.”

Deacon shook his head. “Don’t, Caretaker. You of all people –”

He stopped abruptly, noticing Piper pass by in the dark behind him. She rubbed at her eyes, red and sore for days now, and hurried herself up the stairs to Nora’s bedroom over the workshop.

Tonight, like each of the six days and nights since she returned, Piper came to check on Nora. She knocked softly, like she always did. There was never a reply.

She quietly opened the door and walked into the unlit room. It was strewn with uneaten packages of food that Piper brought her over the last few days, empty beer bottles, and a single Med-X syringe in the trash that Nora had insisted was to treat her insomnia, when Piper finally had the courage to confront her about it. Not that Piper blamed her particularly. She’d heard on the streets of Diamond City that Med-X had the particular side-effect of giving users deep and dreamless sleep. She thought with a pang of sympathy that if Nora was using it, she at least hoped it had given her some peace.

Nora herself was asleep at her desk, arms folded over a pile of crumpled papers. As Piper walked over to rouse her and try to move her to bed, she caught a glimpse of what Nora had been working on. Blueprints, letters to Preston on the Minutemen – it would seem even in grief she had the presence to make sure her people were taken care of – and a couple of balled up sheets of paper that even Piper didn’t feel comfortable peaking at.

An empty plate sat by Nora’s shoulder – at least she was eating something, Piper reasoned, as she gently shook Nora by the shoulder.

“Hey.” Piper said in a soothing tone. “You want to come to bed?”

“With you?” Nora slurred with sleep, lifting her head but keeping her eyes closed. She knocked over an empty beer bottle as she shuffled.

“You’ve been drinking, Blue. Come on.” Nora let herself he hoisted up and made her way slowly to the unmade bed, lying right on top of it with her head a full foot away from the pillows.

“Should I be more worried? Should I be posting a letter to someone?” Piper asked genuinely, thinking even if this went badly Nora might not even remember it.

“Who?”

Piper shook her head, realizing she didn’t actually have an answer.

“There are people who care about you.” Piper said lamely instead, and paused. At nearly a whisper she spoke into the emptiness of the room. “I don’t know what to do.”

It was silent again for a long time.

“Me neither.”

Piper remembered how Desdemona had come back to Mercer on the second day and grilled Nora for hours. Patriot, Sean, Father – the whole thing. Nora had replied on rote, strained and stilted sentences that gave Des and Piper the events of the story but not the feel for it. Even now Piper didn’t have the feel for it. All she felt from Nora was hollowness.

“I’m scared. I’m scared I’m losing you, that we’re all losing you. I can’t imagine what –.”

“Don’t.”

“Well, Blue, I can’t. Ok, I fucking can’t.” Piper was losing her patience now. She needed to break through to her, she _had_ to. Or make it worse, or anything. “What can I do?”

“I don’t know. Leave me alone”

“I almost don’t trust you to be alone.”

“I did it once. I can do it again.”

 _Lose him, she means_ , Piper realized. _Jesus_.

Piper sat down on the bed next to Nora and brushed a strand of hair from her forehead. She’d cut her hair again right before she left – a conservative, conventional cut rather than the undercut she’d been sporting – but now it was disheveled and oily and Nora mostly wore it drawn back.

Piper kept stroking her hair long after the strand was brushed away. The rhythm seemed to sooth them both.

“I’m writing a new story, did I tell you? A follow-up on those kids that sought asylum in Diamond City. Kind of a where-are-they-now piece, not too hard-hitting. But I think it’s important.”

Nora nodded, sighed.

“You got a letter from Abernathy yesterday,” Piper tried, “They had two people show up looking for work but didn’t have the beds. They sent them along to Sanctuary.”

Nora didn’t nod this time, just closed her eyes harder and said “You’re reading my mail.”

“Yes.”

Silence. Piper started again. “Nat is doing well in her apprenticeship.”

Nora opened her eyes, looked right at Piper. “Yeah?”

 _Bingo. Thank god_. “Yeah. She misses you, though.”

“Did you tell her?” Nora cut in with more urgency than Piper had heard her use in days.

“I was vague.”

Nora’s face relaxed.

“Abbott says she’s a natural. He’s already got her working in power, and she’s been messing around with the presses more than normal. She’s learning a lot.”

Nora nodded, gave Piper an _I’m trying_ look. Finally she said “I’m proud of her. Tell her?”

“Of course.”

“I think you should go back, tomorrow.”

“What?”

“Back to Diamond City. You’ve been spending nights here. I heard Caretaker talking about it.”

“Caretaker should stop talking.”

“Please, Pipes. She needs you.”

Piper knew it was true, and she wanted to say _but so do you_ or _who’ll feed you?_ but it was like she didn’t have the energy.

“Ok” she said finally, and nodded. “Just for nights. I’m coming here for days.”

“You really s – ”

“I’m an agent, Blue. I have a responsibility to be here for packages. That’s my current assignment.” _That I begged Des for so I could keep an eye on you_ she finished in her head.

“I think you should leave.” Nora said abruptly, and Piper knew she meant _right now_. It hurt, Nora being like this – it hurt really far inside in a place Piper didn’t want to consider now. But it did.

“Yeah.” The reporter stood, tugged on her t-shirt, tugged on her cap. “Sleep, ok?”

There was no answer. Piper let herself out.

-

The next ten days were, if possible, harder than the first. Dogmeat spent each day at the foot of Nora’s bed, refusing to leave her side. He snapped at Piper the only time she ever tried to take him out for a walk, and she never tried again.

Piper began to find bits and bobs from Nora’s small projects strewn everywhere. A half a pistol grip used as a doorstop; an unidentifiable set of metal dongles tossed across her desk; the beginnings of some kind of hand weapon left on Nora’s untouched bed. Piper would sigh, pick up the parts and take them back to the workshop lovingly, encouraged that Nora was trying to get her mind off things but discouraged that even the thing that always worked – working with her hands – now was no longer enough.

As far as Piper could tell Nora had delegated all of her General duties to Preston, and one of the only things she did with any reliable frequency was send letters out to Sanctuary.

Packages would come in and out of Mercer with Caretaker or Deacon or Piper, but Nora never helped run them. Sometimes Piper would see her late at night doing maintenance on a turret or spotlight, and Piper thought optimistically that maybe that was her way of helping keep them safe.

And Piper, well, Piper was losing steam. For all her practiced patience she was hardly able to get any more detail out of Nora than what she’d said to Desdemona. She had looked so hollow then, so lost.

Piper wanted to be endlessly supportive, endlessly patient, the hero that Nora needed. But she felt like she was giving and giving and getting absolute scraps, and even when she told herself about what kind of pain Nora must be in she still _felt_ shitty, deep in her bones.

Sometimes Nora would have flashes where she’d been more animated, and sometimes then she’d apologize to Piper or express gratitude. But even with Nora trying so hard, it wasn’t enough.

She was being selfish, Piper supposed. She wanted more and now was _really_ not the time to want. She knew that – she didn’t need Des’s pep talk to tell her. And as worried as she was for Nora, she was worried for them.

They had been close to something. Piper was almost sure. Maybe it was gone now.

And that damned voice inside Piper that wanted more of the story, that told her _read that letter_ or _rifle through that drawer_ , would just not shut up.

And so sometime during the muddled, muggy third week since Nora returned, Piper finally reckoned it was time for some tough love.

She marched with purpose that morning from Diamond City. She walked through the door to Mercer like she owned it which, now that Nora was all but MIA, she practically did. She walked right up over the workshop to Nora’s room and knocked harder than normal and walked in like she always did, without waiting for a reply.

And Nora was gone.

Dogmeat was gone, and his bowl was empty, and Piper rummaged around in a panic and couldn’t find a note either.

And then, from the corner of her eye, the most damning evidence: Nora’s blue vault suit, folded and pressed, on the top of her dresser.

“Caretaker!!”

He looked up from below, startled. “F-Friday?”

“Where is Wanderer!?”

“I – I haven’t seen her. She left her room?” He questioned, still clearly frightened by Piper’s frenetic energy. But she was too far gone to tone it down for him; she was already flying down the stairs, t-shirt rippling with her movements, reloading her gun and running out the backway towards Diamond City and not even locking the door behind her but yelling out behind her at Caretaker to do it.

-

“Well, to what do I owe the pleasure, Ms. Wr – ”

“Nick, I need your help.” Piper interrupted, utterly uncharmed by Valentine for once.

“What’s wrong, kiddo?” Valentine asked, instantly serious. Ellie came down from upstairs with concern on her face.

“Nora’s gone.”

“Gone? She left her room?”

“And took Dogmeat. No one has seen her. Please, Nick.”

“Ok, ok.” He reached out to touch her shoulder, and Ellie put her hand on the other one from behind her, and it almost calmed her a little.

“She wasn’t ok, Valentine. I think she might do something stupid.”

He looked up startled. “You don’t think…”

“I don’t know, Nick! She left her vault suit. Just, please. Please.”

“Do you think she would go to Sanctuary?”

Piper shook her head. “No, no, she wouldn’t go there. Too many memories.” She gestured dismissively with her hands “She…she took her ring off. I noticed when she came back.”

“Damn.” Valentine growled. “So, she’s trying to get away. She doesn’t want to be recognized. She took Dogmeat so we couldn’t have him track her. She didn’t take anyone else, and she didn’t take Power Armor, so she’s probably not expecting a fight. Somewhere settled, but that doesn’t hold any memories for her…”

“Memories.” Ellie whispered.

Nick’s glowing yellow eyes snapped to Piper’s hazel ones.

“The Memory Den” they said in unison.  



	37. Runaway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/2  
> Piper brings her back.

“Amari, we need to find her. We think she might be in danger.”

“Valentine! You of all people should know that I cannot break doctor-patient confidentiality. Even if Nora was my client I could not tell you.”

“Goddammit, Raj.” Piper cut in acidly, punching the air with her fingers. “I know she came to you.”

“We’re concerned Nora may be unstable, Amari. If she asked you for treatment she may not be in the right state of mind to make medical decisions.”

“Valentine, I appreciate your position. But in this business I cannot breach patient privilege. If it got out, none of my clients would ever come back.”

“All this secrecy over a few relived memories, Doctor? We’re trying to help the woman.”

“Valentine.” Piper shook her head angrily. _He could be so dense for a detective sometimes._ “She didn’t come here to relive her memories. She came to _erase them_.” She whipped back to Dr. Amari, hands talking as loud as her words. “You listen to me Raj.” Piper hissed tightly. “If you so much as check her temperature when she’s not competent to make decisions, I swear to god I’ll make sure every lowlife in this whole fucking town finds out about it and no one ever, ever forgets. You want to play medical ethics? How about mindwiping a grieving woman?” Amari backed away from, looking down at her shoes and shaking her head. “Tell us where she is. She’s not…she’s…. Jesus, if you’ve done something to her head –”

“Ok, Piper. Ok.” Irma interrupted gently, hands out in a placating gesture. “There’s no need for that. If, and I mean _if_ , Nora came here seeking treatment, she is clearly no longer here.” As Irma said it she moved an odd way, too close to the desk to make sense, and as Piper saw her eyes narrowed, knowing immediately what that body language meant.

Irma was intentionally blocking something from her view.

Piper didn’t bother with politeness. She dashed around Valentine and behind Irma, snatching the folder she guessed was Nora’s medical file off of Amari’s desk and then dashing back before flipping it open hastily and scanning it.

“Piper Wright, I must ask you to return that immediately!” Amari yelled in an actually quiet authoritative tone, but it was too late. When Piper gambled, she almost always won – this was no exception.

“It…she… _shit_. Ok, ok, we have time.” Piper looked up, her righteous anger at the two other women fizzling into pure laser focus. “If she left here at eleven she’s still in Goodneighbor, probably for the night.” Piper said, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose.

“The Rexford or the Old State House. Only two places to find a bed in this gutter.” Valentine growled.

“State House.” Piper said with confidence, grimacing at her own reasoning. “She’s punishing herself.”

“Irma, doctor, I wish it could be under better circumstances.” Valentine shifted his glowing eyes between the women and lowered his hat apologetically as he turned to leave, taking Piper by the upper arm gently and leading her out.

Piper turned right around, adjusted her press cap, dropped the file, and looked at both women, something between _I’m sorry_ and _thank you_ that didn’t make sense to Valentine, not yet.

-

It was the State House, of course – Piper knew. They hadn’t even tried the Rexford. When Piper and Nick reached the top of the third floor stairs it was Dogmeat’s tail, of all things, peeking out from behind a damaged doorframe in the dusty dim room, that told them they’d found their mark.

Piper broke away from Nick in a run, rounding the corner and out of sight.

What Piper found was Nora sitting against the far wall of a room on a bloodstained mattress, eating something cold directly out of the can, in earshot of two (what Piper assumed at a glance to be) passed out addicts.

And when Piper opened her mouth to yell at this obstinate idiot of a woman, her eyes met Nora and everything just fell apart.

She saw the cold can of beans in her hand. The black circles under her eyes that had been darkening and darkening since she returned from the Institute. Her frame, so much thinner and less powerful now than it had been only weeks before, looking even frailer under a ratty, oversized t-shirt.

In that moment Piper saw what was happening and she couldn’t…she couldn’t be angry.

“Blue.” She gasped. “ _Oh my god_ , you’re ok.”

The reporter rushed Nora on the ground and took her right into her arms, holding her fiercely, not letting go even when she realized she hadn’t touched Nora in weeks and maybe she shouldn’t have but here they were and Nora was burrowing deeper into her it seemed, grabbing at her shoulders and the back of her neck and there were hot tears in the crook of her neck but she didn’t know who they belonged to.

“Shhh, shhhh, it’s ok.” Piper cooed, holding Nora, rocking her slightly. “I’m here. It’s ok.” The outside world dissolved around them. After long, long minutes holding onto one another Piper pulled back and sat back on her haunches, never breaking contact with Nora.

Nora wiped her eyes and almost smiled. “I should’ve known better than to think you wouldn’t come looking for me.”

“You really should have, you fantastic idiot.” Piper laughed through her tears. “Remember when you said I was your kind of nosy?”

Nora nodded, obtuse, bleary from her tears.

“I stole your file from Dr. Amari. That’s how I figured out you were still here.”

Nora looked stricken. Her face sagged as she turned away from Piper towards the darkness of the room.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, no.” Nora shook her head, still looking ill. “I am. I wasn’t. I –”

“Hey, hey.” Piper pulled her back, one hand gently against her cheek. “I don’t blame you. I don’t blame you, Blue. But I hope you changed your – I – I don’t want to lose you.”

“I already did.”

Piper raised an eyebrow.

Nora nodded, wiped her nose, and put her head back on Piper’s collarbone. “Changed my mind, I mean. I couldn’t do it.” Piper pulled back to look in her eyes again. “Yesterday, these few weeks, it didn’t seem worth it to remember. I thought maybe I could be a different person. Leave you and Nat a letter and send Dogmeat off and be done. But…I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it.”

Piper nodded, again drawing the taller woman fiercely against her. The line of Nora’s body pressed against Piper like it fit there, and everywhere they touched felt _warm_ and _safe_. Slowly she lowered her survivor down to the mattress and laid gingerly to face her in the darkness, dragging a thin blanket that had been crumpled up behind Nora over both of them. It was silly – they were both in jeans and t-shirts, and it was the middle of summer – but something about it seemed right. Like a barrier between them and the world.

“Is that ok?” Piper asked almost absently, drawing the blanket to Nora’s shoulders.

“Y-yes.” A beat. “Stay.”

“Of course.” Piper said easily, feeling Nora curl into her chest. Piper could feel her own body lightly move with Nora’s hiccupping, and ran her fingers gently through Nora’s hair as her own eyes dried. “Shhh, shhh. It’s ok Blue, I’m right here. Right here.” Piper soothed again. The sensation of Piper’s sure fingertips running gently over Nora’s scalp was hypnotic to both of them. “Shhhh.”

Then, un unexpected rustling – Nora untangled herself from Piper’s embrace slowly, laying to face her again, and Piper could see the tears that had wet her eyes and nose and lips shine with the dim but golden light of the lantern. Piper was so fixated on that sight that she almost missed the look on Nora’s face. The one she’d been noticing – willfully ignoring – more and more before that day with the teleporter. The one she hadn’t seen in far too long. That look that reflected Piper’s own desire in a way that never failed to make her twist up inside with thrill.

She’s never seen it like this before, though. Open and raw and _powerful_.

Nora lunged forward to kiss Piper, her lips capturing the reporter’s, hot and wet from the tears but so, so soft. She moved against Piper desperately, seeking the comfort of her kiss, in, in, opening up to her, parting her lips and letting her tongue touch Piper’s gently – and –

Something in Piper whispered _pull back, she’s upset, don’t take advantage of this_ – but something louder, stronger, closer, deafening almost, thundered in Piper’s head _if you stop now you’ll never get to kiss her again_ and so in the end the decision was simple. Piper kissed Nora back fiercely, surprising them both. She kissed her with utter dedication, both hands running through her hair, each finger tracing a line of chills down the survivor’s neck and across her jawline.

Nora sped up then, skimming her hands just under Piper’s t-shirt and up across the rise of her ribs – her teeth nipped insistently, needily at Piper’s lower lip, until Piper surrendered and opened her mouth to Nora completely and let Nora’s tongue fill her mouth. Piper could taste the sorrow on her tongue, that salty acidic flavor that follows too much crying.

She wanted to take it away. She wanted for this moment to be different.

But even still, the intensity of the kiss sparked like wildfire through her brain and down every nerve, crashing over her, hot and electric and enveloping. She wanted to be closer, closer – every sense was on fire and somewhere between _oh my god_ and _it’s Blue doing this_ Piper’s mind had just quieted and she had become just a series of sensations, moving on automatic, seeking contact, taking Nora in. Until Nora stole away with heavy breathing and Piper realized how much _less_ there was without Nora moving against her.

For a second Piper almost thought Nora might speak, with that look on her face. Piper felt caught in the moment, frozen halfway to speaking, for long seconds before the taller woman curled back up into her thumping chest like she belonged there. Piper covered them again with the thin blanket, and just like that Nora let herself settle, burrowed into Piper’s small and strong embrace, still crying a little but this time with one hand up under Piper’s shirt and against her ribs like a fiery brand.

If Nora slept, then it was in her sleep that she cried against Piper.

But Piper did not sleep. Piper let herself stay awake to the uneven breathing of her Blue and her own fluttering heart that said _has it ever been like that?_ even as her traitorous brain repeated like a litany in the night _you took advantage of her_.


	38. Libertalia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2/2  
> Nora meets Cait in the unlikeliest of places, except it won't seem unlikely anymore because I spoiled it in the title. More Piper and Nora after this chapter.

Nora shuffled her feet heavily, the Power Armor weighing her down more than normal. Visions of Goodneighbor danced behind her eyelids: Piper’s lithe body arching against hers in the night; the unspeakably awkward morning after waking at the Old State House; how Piper couldn’t even bear to look at her, could barely speak to her. And she knew she deserved it.

Piper had asked what there was to do now and all Nora could think of was Libertalia. It was double duty really, clear up the Raiders who’d been pressuring Nordhagen while playing along with Father. Something to do anyway; someone to kill. One foot in front of the other.

That was two days ago.

Now, thirty feet off ahead of her stood a Courser whose orders were to protect her life rather than end it. X6-88 glinted dark and metallic in the afternoon light, silver throwing off from the rims of his glasses and the muzzle of his Institute gun.

Introductions were wooden and cursory. If there was a man in there somewhere he was buried very deeply. All the better, Nora supposed. He took orders without question and moved silently and swiftly. Watching him work, watching him deal death as night fell over the New England coastline, Nora got to thinking about what it would’ve been like to have to genuinely taken down a Courser. MacCready would probably still be looking for all the pieces.

Cleaning out Libertalia was no small task. Raiders holed up in every corner and cutout of the wreckage, even coming up at Nora from below the gangway and from the bird’s nests of the ruined ships. But with X6, the work was short and efficient. And damn near silent.

Until Nora stumbled on the bar boat. As usual, Raiders scattered left and right of her imposing Power Armor, some fleeing but most staying to fight with the false confidence of a hit of Psycho or Med-X. She was able to disarm and subdue two or three – X6 was utterly indifferent – but the rest she painted the walls with, more angrily than normal, watching her victim’s intestines slide out of their punctured bodies with less disgust than any human had a right to.

She had just hopped behind the bar to check for loose caps and chems when the familiar cut of bare shoulders and leather stole her attention.

 _Cait_.

Thinner, more sunken, _clearly_ stoned Cait, lop-sided and mean, sitting low against the green rusted wall behind the bar. Hiding.

X6 raised his weapon mechanically.

“Stop!” Nora shouted, and immediately he froze, weapon unwavering. “She’s not a Raider. I know her.”

“Very well.”

Nora took her helmet off, kneeled down so she was only about as tall as a man.

“Oi! What in the bloody ‘ell are you doin’ here vaultie?” Cait broached with an aggressive, loopy smile.

“Ah, Cait. To what do I owe the pleasure.” Nora said flatly while simultaneously helping her stand. “And what in the everloving fucking hell are you doing in Libertalia?”

 “Slummin’ it. Your advice about Goodneighbor was fucken terrible. Dirty bunch ‘a nothin’s, no fight in ‘em, loved that shite paper, too. Spent two days there before one of Gabriel’s little birds found me and cashed my contract.”

“Your what?”

Cait just shook her head. “’ere to kill him, ain’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Let me help.”

“No.” Nora said firmly. “Stay here, sober up. We cleared the room. I’ll get you when I come back.”

“Ha, yeah, fuck you too, vaultie.” Cait shoved Nora off her – ineffectually, on account of the armor and her state – and proceeded to actually sit down and open a beer.

“Ma’am, I recommend we continue to make progress towards our goal.” X6 cut in with his inhuman affectation. Nora only signaled him to lead out the door, turned on her heel, and followed.

-

By the time Nora was back on the bar boat it was three in the morning and Cait was actually asleep. When Nora rustled her she spit, cussed, and stood up.

“He’s…dead, Cait. Gabriel.”

“Oi, is he really.” She said with real wonder. “I’ll be damned. You keep fucking up my gigs, vaultie. But I can’t say you’re not good for it. This one was worse than the last. Almost had me missin’ that old fuck Tommy. Where’s that big angry black guy?”

“He’s…cashing the reward. Paid work.”

“Where’s that papergirl of yours?”

Nora cringed and hoped Cait was still too tipsy to notice. “Diamond City. She’s not really involved in this.”

“No shite. Killing dozens of people was never her bag. By choice anyway.”

“No, it wasn’t.” _Just when she got involved with me_. “What are you going to do?”

“Drink myself to death.”

“Want to get paid for it?”

“What’re you on about, then?”

“Remember when I offered you a job in Sanctuary?”

“Oi, that shite again. I don’t want to shovel fucken Brahmin shite in your fucken fairy wonderland.”

“Yeah, I remember. But a new position just opened up. Bartender. Not far from your old stomping ground – half a mile from Diamond City actually, old place, maybe you know it. Used to be called Hangman’s Alley.”

Cait’s eyes went wide, so wide Nora could see the bloodshot in them. “You’re in Hangman’s Alley?”

“It’s Minutemen now. We’re undergoing some…redevelopment. And I think a bar is just the thing to keep us working.”

“Pouring drinks, eh?”

“Shooting Raiders when you have to. Don’t even have to join the Minutemen. Keep sober enough on the job to stand behind the bar, that’s all I need.”

Cait looked at her like a three-headed Brahmin, a long _yeah-fucken-right_ look, before apparently deciding Nora wasn’t snowing her.

“I’ve had worse offers….Hell, I’ve taken ‘em. Ok vaultie, nothing better here.” Cait grabbed a worn shotgun from behind the bar and stood near the doorway.

“Well, get your things.”

“These are my goddamn things! Fucken snob.” Cait snorted, hefting her gun before walking out the door and across the gangway, Nora yelling out after her to bear north for Nordhagen Beach.


	39. Mistakes Were Made

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/2  
> Cait's a terrible influence, but she does seem to bring these ladies closer.  
> Nora and Piper have a fight and then a big conversation.

Piper Wright was _fucking livid_.

She stormed into the Dugout Inn in an utter rage, slamming the door open and practically marching up to the bar where Nora and Cait sat side-by-side chatting with Vadim. Nora had just begun to turn around, the hairs on her neck prickling up, when Piper shouted.

“What the FUCK were you thinking, Blue?!”

Vadim looked terrified; Piper seemed to loom above them all. She was talking with her hands, loudly, and Nora knew that was bad.

_Ah, well, she knows then._

“You stage a BAR FIGHT with this idiot Vadim over here” she stabbed the air in the proprietor’s direction menacingly “to what? Make Travis feel like a big man? And then stiff the not-at-all-shady muscle, and what? What exactly did you two expect?”

“Piper…it not like that. Nora here did nothing wrong! Only help friend, yes?”

Piper looked like she had something nasty to say back to Vadim but held her tongue and turned her head to Nora. “So your plan goes wrong and your solution is to track down the mercenaries and _kill them_ – and bring Travis??? ARH! What the FUCK were you thinking Blue?!” Her hands shot out to punctuate her words, and in any other context Nora would probably have been charmed by it, but at this moment it was almost frightening. But even more frightening was the way that Piper’s voice then dropped to a whisper as she hissed “And this, after Libertalia? After you go back to the Institute without telling me and I have to hear about it by reading a letter you sent Des days ago? After I spend a good three fucking days wondering where you were?” Her voice ramped back up. “Do you have any idea how stupid and dangerous what you did was? Do you?!”

“Hey, wait.” Blue stood up, hands out in a placating gesture, shooting a look at Cait that said _don’t get into it with her_ at the same time. “That is not exactly what hi-happened.”

“Are you…are you _drunk_ Blue?” Piper’s voice had dropped in volume but it was pure dripping acid in tone.

“Ay, Piper, leave off it ‘ill yea!” Cait interjected but was quickly silence by Nora who took a few steps towards Piper.

“First of all, I didn’t know what happened with the payment.” Blue explained, trying to keep her voice level but clearly starting to get frustrated with Piper’s tone. “B, I didn’t set out to KILL anyone. They wouldn’t even reason with us. And I certainly didn’t ask Travis to come. I actually refused to take him with me, but he wouldn’t listen. Guy shows up at the location in jeans with a pipe pistol! I tried to stop him, ok! So you can just let it go.”

“Let it go? You…you fall in with this…with Cait here –“

“Watch it, lovely.”

“And this is the kind of shit you’re up to? Did you think I wouldn’t find out? Me, of all people? God Blue, you’re just…you need to tell me about things like this!” She dropped her voice again. “You need to tell me where you are when you leave to meet up with a _Courser_ and decide to take the long way back.” Her voice rose to a yell again “You need to ask me before you go and almost get yourself killed. Almost get Travis killed, of all people.”

“That was not on me!” Nora raised her voice in truth now, slurring almost imperceptibly. “And what the fuck do you mean I need to _ask you_? What are you my fucking keeper now, Piper? Maybe you should try looking after your sister before you look after me!”

As soon as it was out Nora knew, deep deep down, she had fucked up.

_Oh shit. Shit! Why did I say that! I didn’t even mean it!_

Piper went as pale as a sheet. Nora thought she might yell again, or cry, or slap her even.

Piper just dropped her hands. “Fuck you.” She said, tone even and volume low.

She turned and walked out.

-

Nora Wells was _fucking hungover_. But at least she remembered everything, even if she wished she didn’t.

 _Fuck fuck fuck_ she thought to herself like a litany as she rolled out of bed and scrabbled around trying to find her shoes. When she found them, and her Pip-Boy, she discovered it was well past noon. Cait was already at the bar, some hair-of-the-dog concoction in her hands, Vadim nowhere to be found.

“You look like shite.” Cait mumbled from above her drink when Nora stumbled out of Room 2. “Looks like yer lady kicked yer arse good last night.”

“Always so charming in the morning, Cait.”

“Morning? It ain’t morning if you never stop drinkin’, love.”

“And she’s not my lady.”

“Sure acts like it.”

Nora just nodded, her insides a jumble, twin rushes of thrill and dread filling her at the notion. Instead of explaining herself, she just tossed some caps on the counter and told Cait to apologize to Vadim for her.

“Where ya going, vaultie?”

“Probably to my death” Nora mumbled to herself. “Out. I’ll catch up with you at Mercer, ok?”

“Don’t wanna travel anymore, am I too much trouble for ya?”

“I apparently love trouble” Nora shook her head to clear memories of last night. “I think I’ve got to try to fix this. I’ll see you around, Cait. Be safe.”

“Yeah yeah. At least get laid for me.” Cait said before waving lazily over her head and dipping back down to her drink.

-

Piper wasn’t home, and she wasn’t with Valentine, and she wasn’t in the marketplace or in the upper stands or _anywhere_ that Nora could think to look in her hungover haze.

So Nora plunked down at Power Noodles, nursing a bottle of water and shielding her eyes from a luckily overcast sun. What was she going to do? Her stomach was churning like and mad she knew it wasn’t all the hangover. The thought of how mad Piper had been…and what she said, and what Nora had said…it was making her sweat bullets.

_Why do you seem so goddamned determined to destroy everything since the Institute, Nora? Yourself included? Worse, Piper. What you have…what you could have with Piper?_

And as if summoned, a compact shadow suddenly glided in front of Nora’s face, blocking the sun.

“Looking for me, Blue?” Piper said, almost wearily. She sat down next to the survivor without really making eye contact.

“Can’t keep anything from you.” Nora said meekly, waiting for the shoe to drop.

“No, no you can’t.” Piper paused, fishing in her pocket for something. “How’re you feeling?”

_What? Why isn’t she ripping into me?_

“I…uh, well. I’m really hungover. But I think I’ll live.”

Piper was silent. She took out a cigarette, lit it, and took a long drag. Somewhere deep inside, in a mature part of Piper, she knew she was being the immature, petty, weak child she always worried about being around Nora. She knew she was actively making things worse. But she just couldn’t – she couldn’t –

And apparently neither could Nora.

“I’m sorry, ok!” Nora boomed suddenly. A few passerbys turned to listen and then turned away, disinterested.

Piper froze for a second, then wheeled around on her stool.

“I – please, just, I –”

 Nora rushed to close the distance, not running but almost, and got so close Piper found herself standing up just to make room. Or maybe to run away.

“I – ” Nora started again, angry – or, not angry. _Something_. “I don’t know how else to say it. I know I have to live with it. But please, say something. I can’t stand it. Please just, I’m so sorry.”

Piper reared back to Nora, stunned by her outburst. “I – I, uh – wha – _huh_??” The reporter shook her head a little, incredulous.

“I’m so, so sorry Piper. I don’t know what else to say. It never should have happened.”

Piper started to walk away, somewhere more private, but realized with a start that Nora wasn’t following her because she wasn’t sure she should, so she turned around and flicked away her cigarette and signaled _come on_ in their old field vernacular, and Nora caught up with her quickly.

She dashed down a shaded alleyway between the Publick building and the marketplace, Nora following silently, until they stood together in the narrow space away from prying eyes.

“What shouldn’t have happened?” Piper interrogated, irritated now.

“What I said. The Travis thing. Not finding you after Libertalia. All of it.”

“ _All_ of it?”

Piper looked at Nora now, really looked into her eyes, and Nora’s expression softened.

_That’s what this is really about. Of course. Of course it is._

“All of it. I never should have kissed you.”

That stung, still. For a second Piper winced, although, what did she expect? But now it was her curiosity being fed. Something else was going on here; there was a story. When she spoke again her voice was completely different. It was soft and kind. “Stop that. I don’t know what you think you did wrong but it’s me who should be saying that. I screwed up, Blue. _I’m_ sorry.”

“You – what – no. No, Piper, you were incredible. You found me. I…”

“Hey, listen.” Piper wanted to reach out. “You didn’t do anything wrong that night. I shouldn’t have…I shouldn’t have taken advantage of the situation like that.” Piper looked down, her cap covering her eyes. “I should’ve been strong enough to pull back, cool it off. You were in no state to be making decisions, and I knew that. And I still let it happen.” She bit back her tears, finished despite the burn behind her eyes and in the back of her throat. “I should’ve been stronger. You deserved more.”

“You…what? _Fuck no_!” Nora bellowed, catching Piper’s gaze and in an instant dispelling the tension that was tightening between them. “I kissed _you_. I started this.”

Piper…hadn’t actually thought of it like that, to be honest. She stared at Nora bewildered. Nora, angry, tall and broad-shouldered and powerful and beautiful, apparently, like this when she was so passionate about something. _About me_ Piper thought with a start before tamping it down.

“I put you in a terrible position. I put you in a position where you couldn’t say no to me. _I_ took advantage of _you_.”

“No.” Now it was Piper raising her voice. “No, Blue.”

“And don’t ever, ever say you’re not strong enough. Least of all for me, or for this. You are the strongest person I’ve ever met.”

Piper huffed, almost a psht sound that could’ve easily come from Nat. Family trait.

“I mean that, in every way. When I’m down, out, like before – hell, like this – when I’m sick or the rad’s’ve got to me or I’m just not ok, you never, ever flinch. You carry us. Get a Stimpack in you and you’re practically indestructible. Which wouldn’t be so terrifyingly inspiring if you knew how to give up, but you _definitely do not_. You could hunt me across the Commonwealth, I think, which is one of the reasons I changed my mind about the Memory Den. I didn’t think I could ever really run away from you. And no matter how good Amari was or how much of me they tried to erase, I don’t think I could ever really forget you.”

When the conversation had turned, exactly, Piper couldn’t say for sure – all she knew was that now Nora was holding her by both arms and looking into her eyes like a Gatling Laser boring into steel and Piper couldn’t look away, couldn’t tear herself from those hot, clear blue eyes that held so much, everything from rage to guilt to maybe even –

It was Nora who broke away first. Always was.

“I’m sorry. I – I, I’m not…ugh, Piper. We should…we should go.” Nora’s eyes now bore into the ground at her feet with almost equal intensity, and when she spoke it was to her shoes. She rubbed the back of her neck with one hand before turning away from Piper. But she didn’t move to walk away.

“Ok.” Piper said, quiet but resolute. Nora tilted her head back over her shoulder, ear to Piper. “Ok. We should go. But, you have to swear to me –” their eyes connected again “You have to swear to me that you’re going to let go of whatever cross you’re bearing over this because I _could have said no_ , Blue. I could have, and I didn’t. Ok?”

“Ok.” Nora said slowly, clearly reluctantly but also with a note of acceptance. “I don’t want to let this hurt us. Listen, I know I’ve been kind of…off. Not myself. I know it’s not an excuse.”

“Blue, I….ugh.” Piper rubbed her brow with one hand. “I can’t imagine what it was like. Any of it. But you’ve got to –”

“I know.”

“Do you?” Piper asked, uncharacteristically softly. Hesitantly.

Nora only nodded.

Piper stood motionless for a beat, expression and body language unreadable, until she shook her head and one edge of her mouth almost formed a grin.

“Don’t go being like that if you’re not ready to get stuck with me.”

“Easiest decision of my life.”

Piper quirked an eyebrow. “Let’s not rate your recent decisions, Blue.”

“What I said about Nat, I –”

“I know.”

Nora smiled truly now. “Do you?”

Piper just grinned back and gave her a shove. “You coming then, Blue? I’ve got to get to HQ tonight and I could use a Heavy escort.”

“Who are you calling a _heavy escort_?”

“Oh, ha.” Piper pushed her lightly again, not hiding her smile. “Well, I know Cait’s left town, so maybe you’re free?” Piper’s voice changed from playful to vulnerable.

“How you do you that, Pipes? How do you know these things?”

“The press always knows.”


	40. Diversionary Maneuver

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2/2 Piper and Nora part ways, and Nora finds herself gunning around with the one and only infamous, cocky, delightful Glory.

The shower was indescribably luxurious. Nora scrubbed herself pink under the lukewarm water, letting it slowly wash the soap out of her hair. Putting a solar shower in Mercer was one of her better ideas, ever.

One of the only good ones in recent memory, maybe.

She was even too hot on bad decisions for Desdemona at the moment, who in no uncertain terms had ordered her off involvement with Bunker Hill when she reported back to HQ with news of the Institute’s plans. It was a risk, having Nora drag her feet with Father on this, but Des had promised to resolve the issue before the Institute could act anyway.

And to do this she’d put Piper on Bunker Hill instead, and had Nora running a safehouse chore for Dr. Amari that any Heavy could do. Nora knew Des knew she was off her game.

And now Nora was here, taking her end-of-the-line shower like she always did before doing something terrifically dangerous, except this time it was Piper who was in danger and the warm water wasn’t washing Nora’s fears away like it usually did.

Piper was too valuable. She couldn’t be risked. The Railroad couldn’t stand to lose her. Diamond City couldn’t. Nat couldn’t.

Mostly through, selfishly of course, Nora couldn’t.

The hot, insistent imprint of their kiss all those days ago still seared into Nora’s lips at the most inopportune times. It would’ve been easier if it was an ordinary kiss. Unmemorable. Unremarkable.

It would’ve been easier if it was still tinged with guilt, but now that Piper had absolved her – admitted she _had wanted it_ – well.

It was sinking her. She couldn’t stop thinking about it. She’d come back to haunt Piper after death, she was sure, just on the force of that sweet, beautiful kiss alone.

It was enough to make Nora want to slide a hand down, down through the warm water to –

The water tank feeding her shower sputtered, dripped, and ran empty.

 _Damn_.

-

Ten minutes later Nora was dressed and geared up, shaking her damp hair out and trying to work the water from her ears, when Piper knocked twice and walked into her room – her custom now since those weeks before the Memory Den. Before that kiss.

“So, headed to Malden for the doc, huh?” Piper opened, leaning against the doorframe and popping a gumdrop.

“Umm hm.” Nora nodded, combing her fingers through her hair. “Headed to Bunker Hill.” It wasn’t a question.

“It’s going to be ok, Blue. Des has got eyes on the place from every alleyway. You’ll be in more danger with the Gen 1s.”

“Take Power Armor?”

“You know I can’t do that.”

“Take Dogmeat?” Nora asked hopefully.

“I…don’t you want him?”

“I don’t want you to go alone.”

“I won’t b – ”

“ _Please_. Just in case.”

Piper paused, not out of consideration but out of surprise, before nodding her head and quietly agreeing. Nora hated going anywhere without Dogmeat. She’d even taken him up to the Prydwen.

“But, hey.” Piper reached out to lightly touch Nora on the shoulder and whatever she was planning to say just died on her lips because Nora had turned into the touch and was looking right at her with that ship-sinking gaze, that clear steely gray gaze full of _want_ and _need_ and where Piper’s hand fell on her shoulder was all molten heat.

When their lips collided Nora almost lifted Piper off the ground, strong arms wrapping around her, hands sliding up her shoulders and back and through her hair and _Christ_ Piper was helpless to her. She made a sound that was embarrassingly like a mewl as Nora’s tongue slid across hers and Nora made this deep sound – this growl, almost – as Piper found herself lifted and set down on the dresser of Nora’s bedroom, their lips never breaking, not even for breath.

It was like the first time except without the tears and the sadness and the fog of grief which made it _real_ and _physical_ and almost _too intense_ , almost something that could get away from them.

Piper felt combustible with Nora pressed flush against her, one hand on her thigh now as it fell open to let Nora closer and the other holding her jaw steady as Nora kissed her with abandon. The taller woman settled herself between Piper’s legs and the press of her made Piper mewl all over again. Nora, with all her broad shoulders and strong frame, coiled and hot and _wanting_ , pushed farther into Piper’s body _right_ against her perfectly. She let her lips fall from Piper’s and kiss hot trails across her cheek and jaw and neck and clavicle and –

With a sharp intake of breath Nora pulled back, hands snapping from their incriminating positions across Piper’s body to hold her loosely at the waist. The reporter looked dazed, shocked at the loss of contact, face deeply flushed and lips kiss-swollen and red and inviting. Nora almost let herself crash back into Piper but held back, unsteady, swaying on her feet.

“What – did –B –?” Piper stuttered, blushing if possible even darker, down her neck and across her chest where Nora watched it disappear under her disheveled t-shirt with undisguised envy.

“We shouldn’t. I mean…I’m not…I.” Nora hesitated, watching Piper’s face start to fall before she shook her head and reset. “I mean, you are incredible. Piper.” Their eyes snapped to one another’s. “ _Incredible_. I could do this forever. It’s kind of scaring me, to be honest.”

“Hey, doll.” Piper reached out just one hand to cup Nora’s face gently. _Doll_ , _Christ_ , what that word did to Nora. “It’s ok. Really.”

“You make me feel that way.”

Piper must’ve looked _struck_ by something, because all Nora did was quietly laugh and nod her head. She didn’t try to hide the smile that bloomed across her face and when she looked back to Piper it was reflected on the reporter, a big, true smile shining in the late morning sun.

Piper pressed her forehead to Nora’s and held it there, letting her eyes close.

“I don’t want to go.” Piper confessed, almost too quiet to hear even in the new stillness of the room.

“Me neither. I’m worried…so, promise me?” Nora said, looking up again, knowing Piper knew what she meant.

Piper raised one eyebrow, still grinning, and when she said it, it was almost a punchline, almost a flirtation, but certainly a solemn oath.

“I promise.”

-

“So, what, you just kissed like _just now_?” Glory interrogated in a hoarse yell over the sound of her minigun shredding a cubic foot of cordite and the Gen 1 behind it in a matter of seconds.

“What, do you need a blow-by-blow?” Nora shot back over the rat-a-tat-tat of her own LK-05.

A Synth had gotten behind her somehow, and before Nora could fully wheel around it bashed her, sending her off-balance and into the wall just as Glory was on it, swinging the full butt of her weapon into it and crushing it against a crumbled pylon like a toy being crushed underfoot.

“I wouldn’t complain!” Glory shouted in jest, mowing down two more Gen 1s across the subway tunnel and taking a good ten feet of tile off the walls with them. “You humans, so fragile. All you want to talk about are feelings! Where’s the good stuff?” Glory threw back at her, half-drowned out by the spinning muzzle of her minigun as Nora shot the legs out of the last Synth up ahead and celebrated by ripping her helmet off and pouring a container of what was surely less-than-sanitary water down her face.

“I’m glad though.” Glory said in the relative quiet of the Subway, the last sputterings of her gun echoing off what was left of the walls. “You two had to figure it out eventually. It was getting downright irritating.”

“Oh, well, it was all for your benefit really.” Nora joked and Glory shot her a look that said _damn-well-better-have-been_.

“Damn well better have been.” Glory gloated. _Not subtle, this one_. “That was some Railroad-level-secrecy shit with you two.”

“Like how you and I accidentally ended up on the same low-grade assignment together?”

“Something like that, mission kiddie.”

“Oh, looks who’s – ”

A ding from her Pip-Boy interrupted Nora mid-sentence. Another ding, angry and insistent, and a third right after that.

“How does it feel to need a five pound wrist watch to do what my Synth brain does?”

“Yeah, yeah. Hold on.” Nora hooked her gun at her side and engaged finger controls for her Pip-Boy integration.

“Do you ever feel…inadequate?” Glory continued to tease, but when Nora spoke it was stern and short.

“Wait. It’s CB. Quiet.”

Nora hit the channel open command and a second of static filled the room before a voice cut in.

Des’s voice. Des’s very _stressed_ , very _curt_ voice.

“This is a one-way repeating CB for Wanderer. Project Under-Over is launching early. Packages have not been transported. Friday is in play. Word of fledglings ETA 1 hour.”

Nora’s face was a pale mask of panic.

“ _Fuck_!” She and Glory swore in unison.

“Bunker Hill is a go. Shit, shit, they planned this. Those _fuckers_.” Glory spit angrily. “They planned it for when we were away.”

Nora couldn’t disagree. Her mind was spinning faster than her mouth could move. “You have to get to HQ. Now! If this is a fork they’ll try to hit Bunker and HQ at the same time.”

“Shit. Wanderer, I’m sorry.” Glory said and Nora tried not to think about how Glory had never said anything like that and it was about _Piper_ and –

“Go, just – ”

Glory hefted her weapon. “Give them _hell_ for me.”

And Nora nodded once before tearing out of Malden as fast as her armor would burn fuel.

 


	41. Running Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/2   
> The Battle of Bunker Hill will leave scars.

“Piper!” Nora yelled into the din, voice loud and distorted from her helmet. “PIPER!”

It was nearly pitch black out now. She ran blindly through a haze of bullets and lasers and moving bodies and dust and darkness, screaming for Piper, taking more than one hit but not caring as long as her armor kept the worst of it out. Floodlights flashed around her – from the memorial, from the helmets of the Brotherhood who’d fallen upon Bunker Hill just as the night did, just as she’d arrived – and half of everywhere she looked left her blinded.

“Piper!!”

A Gen 2 in heavy armor stood before her as the dust cleared ahead and she emptied a clip into him before realizing he was standing between a Heavy and a Knight and they were all three of them fighting. Without thinking Nora pulled and lobbed a frag at the Knight, hoping the fog of war would obscure his view of his attacker – luckily, though, her armor was unmarked and her face hidden – and when it went off with a deafening bang and a curdled scream she turned her focus to the Synth, chopping him down with the butt of her gun just in time to look up and see the Heavy she’d help take a .50 caliber through the ear and basically explode in front of her.

For a beat, everything was ringing.

That old horror of war settled deep into Nora now. Cold in her bones. Cold in the pit of her stomach.

“PIPER!” She stumbled up, unsteady on her feet. Everywhere her people were fighting, fighting each other, few of them even turning towards her.

And then, a familiar sound – a bark from behind her – Dogmeat, she knew immediately, and when she turned around it was him at her feet, tail between his legs and ears as back as they’d go. _The mutt can survive anything, can’t he._ “Hey, good boy, good boy. Bring me to Piper boy!”

And he ran off, hunched low and surefooted, and Nora ran after him.

Shots pinged angrily across the sheet metal shielding the crouching form of a women from a group of chattering Gen 2s. Piper, huddled low into the dirt, hissed at two Railroad Heavies that darted to her cover and, just as quickly, back out into the fray.

Nora dashed towards her, down behind her cover, and as she swung around with the butt of her gun Nora dropped her weapon and flung her hands up and just then realized Piper thought for a second she was Brotherhood, until the Power Armor – unmarked, custom – registered and then Piper was saying _thank God_ and _it’s chaos, Blue_ and the ringing was almost too loud for Nora to hear anything until something exploded behind them and pitched the reporter’s small body forward into the makeshift wall.

Piper swore, scrambled to recover as Nora went to block her with her body, and popped off three shots blind from under Nora’s arm that actually hit their mark.

Piper was getting better. _Much better_. And she’d been good to begin with. But no time to admire it now.

“Get in my armor!” Nora screamed over battle.

“What? Just hop out, dust off, take our time? You’re better in it anyway!”

“You’d be safer!” Nora reasoned – loudly – while firing a burst over cover into the exposed chest of a Synth running up the hill towards them. Its body broke, and folded into itself, and crumpled over the body of what Nora hoped wasn’t a civilian.

“Wanna keep me safe?” Piper yelled. Another shot, and another. “Courser, south-by-southeast last I saw. Tearing through the Brotherhood and coming for us.”

“I’m on it!”

“Promise me!”

And Nora dashed back out into the fray, a promise on her lips.

-

Killing the Courser was hell.

The actual killing – oh, that had been the easy part. Because Nora already knew where the chip was, it needed only be a crime of opportunity. And there were plenty of distractions.

No, the hard part had been running past Knights and Paladins and Heavies and Runners and Synths all killing each other and not knowing where to turn.

Not knowing who to kill.

In the end Nora dragged a handful of Synths down as she ran, and, though she didn’t want to think about it, a Knight in Power Armor who had been shooting at a group of Railroad and who Nora cooked in his armor like a boiled egg with one well-placed plasma charge.

The look on his face when he realized, at the last second, that she wasn’t one of them was still playing on the insides of her eyelids as she charged across the moonscape of battle back towards Piper. But as she arrived at their cover she found it chewed to pieces, knocked down and destroyed, no trace of anyone and thank god no trace of bodies, just as a Runner hustled past her and up the hill yelling “Basement! Stockton and Friday and the packages downstairs!” at her and then Nora ran after the haggard woman and down the hatch in what was once a marketplace and was now just the ruins of ruins.

-

“The Institute is willing to trash Bunker Hill to get at a couple of people trying to make it on their own? _Monsters_.” Piper spoke in a deadly whisper. Nora didn’t disagree. Now, standing before these four people, it seemed absurd to think of all the men and women the Institute had killed just to get to them.

If Nora didn’t know the Institute stood on the wrong side already from what she learned on those SRB terminals, or from how Father spoke of her friends – family – on the surface, she’d know it now.

But today, the Railroad had won. Today, they had prevailed against both Institute and Brotherhood, beating them back against the night, beating back the tide of oppression. Even dead tired, dragging a damaged Power Armor frame barely holding together what was left of Nora’s armor, she felt –

Elated.

Light and happy and _victorious_. Four innocent people were safe because of what they did. Piper and even Dogmeat were safe.

Piper was safe.

A grin broke out across Nora’s face, wide and true, as she reached for the rung of the ladder to hoist herself and her ridiculous crumbling armor back up to the marketplace. Once she had two feet on the ground she disengaged the locks and climbed out.

She was matted with sweat and dust and more than a little of her own blood, but she was alive and right in front of her, in proud lead-plate Heavy armor and of course her press cap, was Piper. Whole and beautiful, beaming back at her.

“We did it.” Nora almost whispered. Dogmeat padded around her tiredly.

“We did.” Piper agreed.

Nora moved slowly closer, drawn to the reporter yet again.

“Blue.”

Something was strange in Piper’s voice.

“ _Blue_!”

Why had Piper stopped smiling? What was happening?

In a split-second Piper had her pistol up, sighting something over Nora’s shoulder – yelling –

She shot, once, twice, three times up towards the second story windows, and at the same time someone shot back, missing once and not missing the second time.

Piper buckled, falling to one knee. Blood poured out of her leg and onto the pockmarked concrete, soaking in black.

Nora lost all sensation in her body. She whipped around to get her own sidearm up, body half-pitched already towards Piper – just as something came around in front of her and down over her, a blur of red, filling her view, right down over her face.

Right down _through_ her face.

Piper watched in abject horror as a Brotherhood Initiate with a ripper in his hand knocked Nora back.

She didn’t think. One well-placed 10mm over Nora’s falling shoulder, right into his center of mass and he fell back, pushed down into the settling dust of war as his ripper skittered across the ground.

But all Piper could see was how Nora turned and fell, broken, covered in blood. She could hear someone screaming, hoarse but far away.

It was her.

She scrambled up and tilted at a dead run, as much as she could manager with her leg, until she was on top of the Initiate and killing him with his own weapon. She didn’t register his gurgling or how she opened his neck up like a paper bag or the warm spray of blood that covered both her hands and her chest or when his eyes went dead with the rest of him.

She could only see Nora, split open, fallen. She only saw that.

Getting up from the body she’d left and coming the few feet to where Nora lay, she was almost afraid even to touch her. She fished in her pockets – no Stimpacks, but one Med-X left – and she got it into Nora’s arm as fast as she could; she didn’t bother to look back up. She hoped the shooter above them was dead.

“Blue… _Blue_ , stay with me.” Nora twitched at the injection, and Piper sighed in relief. _She’s alive. She’s responsive. There’s hope._

Gingerly Piper turned Nora on her side. For a second Piper didn’t even know what she was seeing – blood caked in dust, Nora’s hair plastered into the wound but –

Then Nora tried to speak.

It took everything in Piper to stay steady. She gasped; tears rushed to her eyes and fell.

Nora’s face was indeed split. Where her mouth used to be was – _God_ , tears were streaming down Piper’s face as Nora tried to form words with broken parts.

“Shhh, shhh, Nora, don’t talk.” Piper tried to force her tone into something soothing and hoped desperately it was working. “You’ve got some Med-X in you, the pain should be a little better soon. It’s gonna be ok, Blue. You’re gonna be just fine, ok? We won. We’re safe. We’re ok. You’re ok.” Piper repeated while grabbing frantically at Nora’s left arm.

When Nora opened her eyes Piper choked on her tears again. They were clouded with pain and blood, pupils shrunk to pinpoints. They tried to focus on Piper as the reporter grabbed her Pip-Boy. They both knew she was dying. Piper had to beat the clock.

She opened the Pip-Boy display and turned the dials exactly how Nora had shown her. “C-come back to me, ok, Blue? I’ll be in Diamond City. Don’t you d-dare make me wait, o-ok?” Piper tried to smile through her tears, catching Nora’s eyes as they fluttered shut right before that last click of the dial.

The one to trigger the teleporter.

In a flash of blinding blue light Nora vanished and Piper was left huddled in a puddle of blood on the cold concrete, sobbing, gripping at her wounded leg. All that was left of Nora was a few spent casings and three bloody teeth she’d left behind.


	42. Lurch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2/2  
> Piper leans on her closest - only - friends in Diamond City.

It was a relatively sleepless 16 hours for Piper since Nora had vanished into the ether on the edge of death. Since then everything had been a dull, senseless march, one minute blurring into the next.

A few of the surviving Agents had cobbled together a makeshift field medic tent and Piper, along with a number of other casualties – some dying in front of her, some, like her, recovering – and treated her as best they could over that long and bloody night before escorting her to Diamond City the next morning. When she arrived just a few hours ago, she had pulled Nat out of work and hugged her for about 45 minutes, trying to hide her tears and thoroughly scaring her little sis in the process. Nat tolerated it spectacularly well, enjoyed it even a little maybe, but she couldn’t understand why Piper kept saying sorry or promising that Blue was completely fine, just got tied up, but Nat was pretty sure her sister was _really_ stuck on the vault lady.

When Piper finally sent Nat back to Abbott she had hobbled over to Dr. Sun for some suturing. Hey was luckily able to finish what the medics had started – the shot, through and through, hadn’t even become infected. But she was still going to have a nasty limp for a day or two.

Thinking of her luck made her cringe doubly for Nora, and for all those Agents – some, acquaintances – she saw die.

Now, exhausted, Piper sat in Valentine Detective Agency across from Nick, sniffling occasionally and picking at the edges of her fingerless gloves.

“Piper, if she made it to the Institute there’s a good chance she’ll make it. She’s a tough one.”

“I don’t know if she made it. I m-mean, her eyes were closing…”

“Do you really think she’d be that easy to kill?”

Piper chuckled and wiped her runny nose. “N-no, I guess n-not. But even if she made it, what if they know she betrayed them? I _sent_ her there. What if I sent her to…to…”

“She was in Power Armor the whole time, right? Unmarked you said?”

Piper nodded, sniffling.

“And she was attacked by the Brotherhood when she came out, which suggests that the Institute had already been cleared from the area. It’s likely they didn’t see her at all. Hell, the way you tell it they faun over her, they’re liable to think she came to help _them_.”

The door swung open abruptly as Ellie walked in blithely, a parcel under one arm, and gave a start when she was met with both Piper and Nick’s grave faces.

“Oh! Piper. I…ah…” Ellie noticed the red rims of Piper’s eyes and Nick’s ’grieving client’ look. “I’ll…go.”

“No, Ellie.” Piper stopped her as the taller woman turned to leave. “Please, stay.”

Ellie turned back with an apologetic smile and set her parcel down. She pulled a chair around to Piper and sat next to her friend, putting a sympathetic hand on her red-leathered shoulder.

“Nat or Nora?” She inquired softly in a voice she usually reserved for clients.

Piper spat out a bitter laugh. “Am I that predictable these days? I’d say I need to get out more, but…”

“Nora.” Nick replied in his gravely cadence. “Injured at Bunker Hill.”

“Piper, I’m so sorry.” Ellie said sweetly. “Is she alright? Can we do anything?”

Piper shook her head and cast her eyes down to her lap. “Nothing the Institute can’t.” She said sardonically.

“The…Institute? She went back?”

“I…sent her back. I thought if a-anyone could save her –“

“You made the right call, kid.” Nick interjected again. He hated to see Piper beat herself up over anything, however common an occurrence it was. “Smoke?”

“Y-yeah. Thanks Nick.”

“Ellie?” Nick asked, passing a cigarette to Piper and providing a light; Ellie declined. “She’s come out of worse odds, Piper. I saw her with Kellogg.”

Piper nodded absently and took a calming drag on her cigarette. Ellie watched her face carefully, finally breaking the silence.

“Is there anything else, Piper?”

“What?” Piper snapped back from having let her thoughts wander.

“You seem…conflicted. Did something else happen?” Nick quirked his brow at Ellie’s question, and then turned back to Piper whose eyes flicked evasively around the room.

“I…God, you damned detectives.” Piper said more humorlessly than she intended. “Blue, we’ve kind of been…I don’t know. She kissed me, in Goodneighbor, that night we found her. But she said it was a mistake, which actually did not stop it from happening again, and now I think, maybe….I don’t know.” When she finally stopped rambling she looked back up to see the exact same expression on both Nick and Ellie’s face. The one that said _who are you freaking kidding?_

She just sighed. “I didn’t tell Nat.”

Nick ashed his cigarette and sat back. “That girl is more clever than the three of us put together. Don’t tell me you think she doesn’t know something is going on with you two.”

“I don’t even know what it is.” Piper insisted. “I mean…it might n-not even matter now…”

Piper’s voice broke and Ellie put her hand softly back on her shoulder.

“Nat will be out of her apprenticeship in about twenty minutes, Piper. You can have a night in with her tonight and tomorrow we’ll stop by for lunch.” She shot Nick a look.

“Yeah! We’ll stop by. Some coffee, maybe charades. Whatever you need done around the house that you can’t do with that leg of yours.” Nick gestured at Piper’s hurt leg with his cigarette.

“Leg?” Ellie asked, suspicious. “Don’t tell me…”

“I got shot. Don’t rub it in.” Piper said, a little humor returning this time, taking another drag.

“Piper.” Ellie shook her head. “Let me go get Nat. I’ll bring her back to Publick. You should rest.”

Piper nodded, wanting to say something but not finding the words. Finally she just squeaked out a sad “Thank you.”

That night Piper did sleep, restlessly and painfully, blue flashes of light interrupting her dreams. At some early hour she had woken in pain, reached for the tincture Dr. Sun had given her, and discovered Nat had snuck into her bed and was curled up at her side.

 After that there was still some pain, but there were no more dreams of blue light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOON.


	43. Five Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/2  
> Five days after the Battle of Bunker Hill.
> 
> PLEASE NOTE the new story rating and tags.

It would be the kind of night that made a warm spot and a cold beer feel like heaven.

If Blue was here. At least, that’s what Piper was thinking; or rather, actively trying not to think.

It had been five goddamn days with no Blue, no rumors of Blue, no whispers from the caravans coming to and from Diamond City even mentioning Blue. Piper was going mad trying very hard not to imagine that –

The transport hadn’t worked right.

The Institute hadn’t been able to help in time.

They took her, locked her up or killed her, knowing that she was betraying them.

And Piper could only rewrite this goddamn Bunker Hill story so much; she could only stand to relive the horror so many times.

And worse, somehow, was that last beautiful memory of Blue’s smile as she’d come out of the basement, warm and earnest and altogether too _loving_ , rattling around in Piper’s brain.

_Did Blue mean it? Does she actually want me? Oh, god, Blue, please come back. Just please come back._

“I uh…hey, Piper, I’m going to Nina’s!” Nat called out from the living room. _Great_. _Fine. Whatever._ Piper waved Nat off without tearing her eyes off her work – she didn’t even bother to watch the door bang shut.  

_Focus. Just focus on the article papergirl._

“Hey.”

Piper froze.

Was that – ?

Nora?

She slowly turned toward the door.

_Nora._

Nora, with a hang-dog posture and huge, whole, undamaged smile painting her face.

“You’re beautiful, you know, when you’re working like that. Well always, but especially like that.” Nora said, reverence in her voice. “You’re…”

“ _Not even the first Wright sister the famous Woman Out Of Time bothered to say hello to!_ ” Piper laughed, a quiver in her voice and tears in her eyes as she began to walk – no, run – towards Nora, and at the same time Nora moved towards her, her smile only growing impossibly wider. And when Piper fell into her arms it felt like falling into a warm bed at the end of the longest day of her life.

Piper’s strong, sure hands wrapped behind Nora’s neck and her lips brushed Nora’s ear as she whispered “Blue, you’re ok, you’re ok” over and over again like a litany. “I didn’t know if you were coming back, god, Blue, I didn’t know.”

“I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.” Nora said, voice deep and muffled in Piper’s shoulder. “Your leg ok?”

“My wha -? Oh, yeah, it’s fine, it was nothing. Blue…” Piper breathed as Nora pulled back just until their noses brushed. Now it was Piper’s face that cracked into a glowing smile, ten thousand watts of white teeth, Piper’s eyes crinkling before closing in bliss at the touch of Nora’s lips to hers. Piper kissed her back gently at first, chaste almost, then deeper, passionate, with her teeth grazing Nora’s bottom lip and those sure hands cradling Nora’s face on either side, lithe body arching into hers where Nora’s right hand sat on her waist pulling her closer, the feeling of Nora everywhere around her, pulling her in, enveloping her, this incredible feeling of heat blooming up within her and buoying her heart up into her throat.

Piper pulled back and down with a quiet gasp for air, just enough so their noses were no longer touching. Enough to look back into Piper’s eyes and reach out single thumb to stroke her cheek, which seemed to break some kind of spell because the reporter flushed crimson and dropped back flatfooted with her face buried in Nora’s lapel, nearly knocking her hat off. Nora could feel her smiling against her; she could feel both their hearts beating wildly.

“Piper…” Nora breathed, mouth hovering over the other woman’s ear.

“Blue.” Piper chuckled into her jacket, understanding perfectly well. “Blue! Five days? Five days!” She pushed a hand against Nora’s chest playfully. “I was so worried! I must’ve questioned two dozen caravaners. I’ve been taking day trips looking for clues, hobbling around. I felt totally useless. I was just about ready to take off and go look for you at CIT! I had no idea if what I did even worked.”

“Worked? It saved my life.” Nora said intensely, furrowing. She moved her hands up to hold Piper’s upper arms. “You saved my life.” Piper’s eyes were glistening again in the dim light, and now so were Nora’s, dark but clear.  “When I arrived – well, I don’t remember much. I was under observation for…days, I don’t even know exactly how long – and I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t arouse suspicion. And then when they discharged me I had to teleport to one of their overland locations and walk here. I didn’t want to be tracked back, even to Diamond City. To you.”

“Always protecting us.” Piper has meant it to sound sarcastic but it came out sounding awful sincere. Nora just stared back at her, watched those vivid eyes, those yellow and green depths, until Piper with a small, small smile reached out and touched Nora’s lips right where she’s been split open. There was a scar there, from her cheek to her chin, most pronounced where it cut through her upper and lower lips left of center. Somehow it was so beautiful to her.

“Well, it looks great. Really Blue, I can barely even tell. Does it…still hurt?” She asked, cocking her head, taking a real look at the woman’s scar.

“On the inside a little. I have headaches. And they had to replace most of my teeth, so I still can’t chew very well yet.” Piper cringed, her fingers twitching against Nora’s lips, though she tried to hide it. “Sorry. It’s really not that bad. I think I look like myself. A little bit of a scar, but I think Dr. Sun could probably take a look at it.”

Piper shook her head, tracing the scar now with careful fingertips. “No. You should keep it. For your rugged good looks.”

“Yeah?” Nora asked, drawing closer.

“Yeah” Piper breathed as she closed the distance, their lips meeting again tenderly.

 _This was what I was missing._ _This is what people were always talking about_ Nora thought distantly, and then let the thought go as Piper’s deft hands came up to hold the nape of her neck and play with the short hairs there.

Nora let out a tiny sound of contentment, kissed Piper’s nose, and said “Tell me what I missed.”

“Oh, everything, pretty much. I ousted the mayor, sold five thousand copies of the Publick, rebuilt Bunker Hill, cleaned up Goodneighbor, lifted the ghoul band and took control of the Minutemen.”

“You say it like I don’t think you’re capable.”

Piper scoffed, dipped her head and cuffed Nora playfully on the shoulder.

And that was the moment. That was it exactly – the moment when _too much_ had become _not enough_ and the words came before she had thought to stop them.

“I love you.”

Piper looked back up, but almost in slow motion. A blush bloomed across her cheeks, making her freckles stand out even more.

“Wha-what?”

“I love you.”

“…Blue.” Piper stared. “ Don’t – don’t say that. You…Blue, I’m loud, and obnoxious.” She looked down at her hands, fiddling with her gloves. “I’m constantly getting in over my head. I never know when to stop, I never shut up, I’m the nosiest person you’ve ever met. You haven’t exactly…seen me at my best.”

“Your _best_? I don’t think I have ever, ever seen you do wrong. Even when it would’ve been easy, or safe, or convenient. You’re a _hero_ to these people, Piper. Even if they don’t know it yet.”

Piper’s eyes got, if possible, even wider. They were almost sad.

“You can’t…you can’t mean that Blue.” Piper said, her face falling, and Nora’s heart sank. _This is not going well._

“Why not? Do you really find it so hard to believe that I could fall for you? I think you’re probably the best person I’ve ever met. You are _kind_. You are brave and honest and selfless, and in this world that won’t think twice about breaking you for it. And, you give me his feeling, Piper, that I never had with Nate. The feeling I always wondered whether I was supposed to be feeling – the one I was missing and it made me feel broken.” Nora gestured towards herself, raising her voice more. “You make me feel that feeling. And you’re not flawless – hell, completely not – but you’re _perfect_. You’re _perfect for me_.” Her voice dropped back down to almost a whisper. “I know this is the most I’ve said about it, ever, and I’m sorry. It wasn’t that easy for me. The way you follow the truth, I wasn’t like that, I didn’t see it. Maybe I was afraid. But I’m learning from you, Pipes.”

A heartbeat. Then Piper’s unsure voice, a crook in her brow, gaze dodging.

“You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“I am.”

“Perfect.” Piper gave an incredulous but warm laugh and a single cocked eyebrow “That’s a new one. I’ve never been called perfect before.” She looked at her hands again, picking at her fraying fingerless gloves, her big eyes and deep blush hiding under her hat, _that goddamned charming pageboy hat_ , Nora thought.

“Get used to it.”

Piper looked up. Reached her hand out and cupped Nora’s face and brushed her tiny, sure thumb across Nora’s lips and like a reflex Nora closed her eyes to it. And Piper leaned up on her tiptoes as if to kiss her, like she had a dozen times before, but this time she stopped just short.

“Well, I think you’re perfect too.” Piper whispered to her, holding her cheek gently “and I love you right back.”

When they kissed there was a change – a shift in the way Piper moved, her speed – and the kiss deepened and deepened and spiraled away from them until Piper was at Nora’s neck and Nora was sucking in sharply, both hands in Piper’s hair, the hat discarded.

Nora, voice hoarse and needed, rasped “I want to touch you.”

Piper’s whole body was white hot but still she tried to act calm. “A-Are you sure? I mean, we, we don’t – we don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with. I know you’ve never…that you’ve only ever been with…” _men_ , she was going to say, but she felt stupid, awkward, winced inside.

“Show me?” Nora asked quietly, nervously, but with earnest eyes.

So Piper did.

She stepped back for only a moment, slipping her worn t-shirt over her head and unhooking her bra, a brief nervousness running through her until Nora’s eyes caught her own, calming and full of love. When she let the fabric fall to the floor she could’ve sworn she heard Nora _gasp_.

Piper moved Nora’s hands slowly down her own neck, her collarbones, and the hammer of her own racing heart. So slowly, Piper guided Nora’s rough fingertips delicately over her small, firm breasts and peaked nipples and could not stop herself from sucking in a breath at contact as Nora explored her, their fingers intertwining.

Piper’s body was hard from traveling and marked by a lifetime of mementos from the wasteland – a bullet hole there on her shoulder, a burn mark here on her ribs – but she still had a softness to her, a wideness to her hips and thighs that spoke to something primal in Nora. As Nora traced her body first down to her waistband, then back up, with calloused hands she whispered “You’re so beautiful” and the reporter blushed all over again and muttered “Blue” in a low half-chuckle. On the way back up Piper’s body, Nora’s thumbs strayed and found Piper’s nipples again on their own, this time with intention. She was soft but more insistent, more focused, and her own breathless sounds mixed with Pipers as she touched the smaller woman.

“B-Blue. That feels good” Piper stuttered out, goosebumps prickling her skin, fine hairs standing up, her slight frame shivering subtly. It made Nora’s stomach tumble so hard she barely noticed where Piper’s hands were headed.

As Piper reached for the top button of Nora’s flannel, she paused and looked up at the taller woman. _Is this ok?_

Nora hesitated. “I just…” Her hands covered Piper’s. “…no one has seen me like this since the pregnancy.”

“Not even…?”

Nora shook her head gently.

Piper’s face softened with affection. “You’re gorgeous, doll.” Piper whispered, voice brimming with love, and stood on her tiptoes again to kiss the taller woman.

All Nora could do was nod lightly. The buttons on Nora’s flannel slowly gave way under Piper’s deft fingers and when the shirt and bra had slid off Nora’s shoulders Piper got to see her, undressed fully, faded, jagged stretchmarks adorning her hard, muscled hips and abdomen, heavy breasts exposed in the dim light of the room. She touched Nora’s breasts gently, so gently, reverently almost, seeing what she liked and how she responded.

Piper had backed them up against the bed and now they lay down together, Piper on top trailing her mouth from Nora’s neck down, lower, lower – and circling her hot tongue around a single hardened nipple.

“God, Pipes!” Both of Nora’s hands flew into Piper’s hair again, and Piper smiled against her. It had been too long for her, too, and even the last time – or the times before – it was never like this.

When, after a while, it was Nora’s mouth on the reporter, she was clumsy but earnest, kissing and swirling her lips and tongue over Piper’s dusky pink nipples, doing whatever she could to make Piper squirm. And it was seeming to work, very well. The smaller woman groaned openly now with no control for volume, wriggling under Nora’s touch, only able to say “Blue” between her gasps when Nora found a new spot.

The sounds of Piper’s pleasure filled the room (Nora’s too, like a baseline, humming underneath, strong and steady) and Nora had another dimmed thought about how unsurprising it was that Piper was loud during sex.

 _During sex_. Sex with her, right now. She was doing this to Piper – _her_ _Piper_. When she went to push her hand past Piper’s waistband she looked up at the petit reporter with quizzical eyebrows and a breakable, hopeful look.

Piper, for her part, managed to make eye contact. Her pupils were blown completely, making her eyes look dark, almost black. Nora was sure she looked the same.

“Blue, you sure?” Piper asked. “I, I…I want to. A lot. _A lot_ , a lot. But, I want you to be comfortable with…everything we do.”

Nora cracked the biggest, warmest grin and Piper couldn’t help but return it. In answer, Nora simply unbuttoned Piper’s pants and drew them down with her warm hands, stifling a low moan when she noticed Piper’s panties darkened with moisture. She moved her head back up to capture Piper’s lips, their tongues intertwining, sliding across each other in a way that was at first intimate and sweet but became quickly hot, sexual, explicit even and Nora lowered herself more and felt Piper pressing up into her, the heat and wetness from her against Nora’s leg, and –

“Blue” Piper said, suddenly, breaking away from a kiss. “Hold up.”

Nora froze. Her brain had mostly shut off, and she just looked at Piper bewildered for a heartbeat until she realized something must be wrong and her face fell. _Shit. Shit shit shit._

“No, hey, doll, it’s ok.” Piper’s hands which had been wrapped around Nora’s back and neck slid her cup her face on either side as their noses touched. “It’s just, you got to say all those things to me, and I just need to say this.” Nora, her dark eyes on Piper’s, nodded almost imperceptibly, utterly powerless against Piper’s sincere voice. It was captivating. She was captivating. “ _I love you_. I love how you turned this horrible thing that happened to you into compassion for other people. How you treat people like they’re worth something: me, and Nat, and Nick, but everyone. You’re everything I could ever ask for.” Piper shook her head, eyes shining in the dim light “And all of a sudden I’m terrible with words, I don’t know what happened…” and Piper was laughing softly, pressing her face into Nora’s neck.

“Your words are perfect, Pipes.”

“There’s that word again. You sure you know what that means, right?” Nora could hear the familiar, playful snark in her voice. But this was a softer version.

“Well, if I didn’t before tonight, I do now.”

“Goodness Blue.” Her blush returned. She gently kissed Nora, chaste, loving. “How did I get so lucky…?”

“I’m the lucky one.” Nora said and meant it.

When Piper pressed their bodies back together she switched their positions again so she was on top, showering down kisses on Nora and pressing her thigh into Nora _just so_.

“Mmmm, Piper. Piper.” Nora moaned as Piper moved against her, hands in her hair and cupping her breasts and brushing her lips tenderly. Nora pushed back, just a little, and Piper moaned loudly in response, feeling Nora’s soaked panties on her leg.

This time Piper didn’t ask. She hitched her thumb under the waistband of Nora’s panties and pulled down slowly, breaking the kiss to pull them down and off completely. Nora kept her legs pressed together instinctively, and Piper did not pry them apart. Instead she took her own underwear off and guided one of Nora’s hands to her hip. As Nora touched her there, in soft repeating swirls, Piper used the hand that wasn’t propping her up to caress Nora’s own hip, newly exposed, her mouth wandering to Nora’s neck and collarbones. Nora was so wrapped up in this, and in Piper, that when Piper’s wet center touched her own just barely she gasped and jerked up hard in shock and stimulation, nearly throwing Piper off. Worry flashed through Nora but Piper’s eyes widened in arousal.

That’s when Nora realized how wet Piper was. She was _dripping_.

“God. Piper. You’re going to kill me.”

“Mmmm, Blue. I’ll make it slow.”

Nora’s eyes rolled back in her head as her thighs relaxed, opening for Piper, enough to let Piper’s fingers slide once over her clit. Nora gasped, loudly. She thought maybe she’d cursed but blood was rushing through her head too loudly for her to tell. Piper slowly stroked her with sure fingers, feeling her slickness and her thighs twitching at the sensation. She was supporting herself on her right elbow, and her right hand tangled in Nora’s hair.

“How is that?” Piper whispered, not stopping her slow rhythm.

“Good, so good.” Nora said, and then “higher.” And Piper adjusted to just the right spot and she knew right away because Nora’s fingers dug into her arms when she did.

“And…” Nora trailed off, suddenly self-conscious.

Not stopping, Piper whispered again with a sweet grin “It’s ok. Tell me, Blue.”

“Smaller circles” Nora gasped out, somehow. Piper adjusted again Nora’s body began to thrum with a steady stream of pleasure.

“Yesss” Nora hissed. “Mmm, god, yeah.” And that was all she got out for a long while that was remotely intelligible. Piper’s fingers ran over her clit and explored her, caressed her lips and circled her opening before returning to those delicious tight circles she had been making.

“Piper…” she whispered, her mouth dry. Piper slowed her touches and removed her mouth from Nora’s neck to make eye contact.

“What do you need, doll?” Her voice was so sincere. It always was with Nora.

“I…” _Shit_. Nora was nervous again. It seemed so…explicit, to ask. But Piper watched her patiently. “I want you to use your fingers inside of me.”

Piper’s pupils expanded, her lips parting and curling into a sultry grin at her words as she let her fingers skim down to Nora’s entrance, teasing, circling, touching lightly but not entering.

“Hmmm?” Piper asked, and Nora nodded.

She slowly, very slowly, slid one finger into Nora, only to the first knuckle, barely penetrating her. But Nora felt it, felt _Piper_ , _inside_ , if only barely.

Piper played with her like this for a while, relishing Nora’s wetness and how Nora’s fingers dug into her shoulders and how the sound of her breathing hitched with every movement of her fingers. Their bare breasts touched each other on each stroke, nipples tightening at the contact.  Piper’s slow, gentle thrusts grew deeper until she was as deep as she could go in Nora. _Oh, Blue_. She was slick and hot and so, so soft.

Piper didn’t have to wait for Nora to ask for more – she knew what she wanted. Slowly, still, Piper slid a second finger into Nora. And then a third. Piper adjusted so the length of her thumb pressed against Nora’s clit and in response could feel Nora tightening around her, being filled instead of just teased.

“Piper, that’s –” Nora hitched her breathing on a stroke “– perfect.”

Piper didn’t argue, not this time. “Yeah, Jesus, yeah it is Blue.” And she stroked the woman below her in the same slow rhythm, first shallow, then deeper until she was as deep as possible.

“You’re beautiful, doll. You…you feel so good.” Piper’s voice rumbled low, and her head was swimming, but Nora was reduced to jelly. Her whole world was Piper’s fingers and Piper’s voice. The way Nora looked at her, locked her eyes onto Piper’s as Piper pumped her fingers in and out of Nora, brushing her clit perfectly each time – it felt unreal.

“Piper, please, Pipes, don’t, don’t stop – s” Nora shut her eyes tight, the look on her face plainly reading _I’m close_ , and Piper couldn’t have stopped if she wanted to.

“I won’t stop, doll. I’m right here. I’m not stopping.”

“Pipe-” Nora began, suddenly snapping her eyes shut against her orgasm and her whole body tensed, the crest of the wave breaking and taking Nora with it, all bursts of color and blackness and pure, pure, electric pleasure that filled her to her toes and bloomed inside of her,

On the outside, her hands were gripping Piper for dear life and her walls were contracting around Piper’s still slowly pumping fingers. When she thrust in firm but slow she could feel the added resistance, but she kept her rhythm knowing that Nora needed it, needed something to come around, needed _her_ to come around.

As Nora relaxed back into the mattress and softened her death grip on Piper’s arms, Piper slowly removed her fingers from Nora and wrapped her arms around the woman below her and lay her head softly on Nora’s clammy, stilled shoulder. Nora, her breathing returning to normal, buried her face in Piper’s hair and wrapped her arms weakly around the smaller woman.

“Piper.” Nora said like she was starting to say something, but didn’t mean to finish. “Piper.”

Piper lazily placed a hand on Nora’s stomach which twitched under her, a ghost of an aftershock.

“You’re wonderful.” Nora finished. “I love you so much.” Nora looked down at Piper and brushed a thick strand of shiny black hair from her forehead and looked so much, so damn much like she _meant_ it that Piper believed it. Believed she was wonderful. Believed she was lovable.

“I love you too.” There was that sincere voice again.

“I’m sorry I took so long. Sometimes I have a hard time. I was…nervous.”

Piper shushed her with a finger on her lips. “You didn’t take too long. It was perfect.”

They both smiled.

“Can we sleep like this? Can we just not move, forever?” Piper asked. She didn’t sound dismissive at all – she sounded sweet, romantic even.

“What about you?” Their eyes met again, and Piper snuggled deeper into the crook of Nora’s arm.

“I’m ok. Really.” She brushed her fingers along Nora’s hairline, her cheek. “That was really great for me, too.” Piper was being honest, and Nora could hear it in her voice. But it just wasn’t going to fly with Nora. No way she wasn’t going to touch Piper tonight. If anything, her pride wouldn’t have let her sleep. She wanted to pleasure Piper; show her; prove to her; be the reason for her joy. _So selfish_ , she chided herself, though she didn’t care.

Nora forced herself to come out of her stupor, tracing circles over Piper’s back with her steady fingertips until her limbs felt lighter, sprier, awake again. She caught Piper under the chin with her hand and pulled her up for a kiss, letting it grow intimate and sexual to tell Piper _I want to touch you_. And Piper could feel the pull inside of her when their tongues touched and she felt again how much she _wanted_ Nora; wanted to let her in.

Nora lifted Piper up with strong arms, sliding down lower underneath her, so that Piper’s small breasts hung over her face, and she nuzzled into them before taking one into her mouth.

“Blue…” Piper moaned loudly, keening her name, drawing it out as Nora sucked on her, tongue in fast circles. Nora could only give a muffled hum in response.

Nora kept this up until she felt Piper shivering above her, maybe from too much teasing. She realigned their bodies and found Piper’s mouth again, hot and insistent on her own, aroused, painfully aroused.

“How should I – ” Nora started, then, “How do you want to be touched?”

Piper smiled. “Here.” She pushed Nora back against the wall, getting her to sit upright against the only two pillows on the bed. For a minute they just stayed like this with Piper in Nora’s lap, Nora leaning down slightly to kiss Piper and touch her breasts, tweaking her hardened nipples very gently, pulling and caressing. When Piper could finally stand to break away, she turned around and sat with her back against Nora’s chest. Nora’s arms naturally fell around her shoulders and her hands found Piper’s breasts again. With the height difference, Nora’s lips almost touched the crown of Piper’s head and she kissed her through her thick black hair.

“Blue…?” Piper moaned again, looking back over her shoulder. Nora hummed again in response. “Touch me.” The way she said it, her voice a low octave, Nora knew what she meant. “Touch me like you touch yourself.”

“You are going to kill me.” Nora teased as fingers brushed just gently over Piper’s curls, sending an electric thrill through her from head to toe. She touched Piper like she liked, the soft, tight circles she had asked for before, taking a moment every so often to let her fingers explore Piper: running her fingertips through Piper’s sex, feeling her swollen lips, her incredible wetness.

“Blue. _Blue_!” Piper bucked hard as Nora’s tongue found her earlobe. The smaller woman’s back arched almost out of her lap.

“Ok, ok, ok. Got you. Got you.” Nora reassured, wrapping her arms around Piper tighter, bringing her back down, whispering to her gently.

“Hu…pff..sorry Blue. That was, a little too much.” Piper huffed, breathless, but already beginning to relax. “My ears are a little sensitive.” Usually when someone held her tightly she felt like they were controlling, stifling – but with Nora it felt protective and calming.

Nora was far too amused at her discovery, Piper could tell, but when she resumed moving her fingers on Piper’s nipples and clit she only kissed her ear softly, so softly. She kissed her like this until Piper’s moans were loud and her writhing constant, and she hummed deep in her chest like a whine and said “More.”

Nora obliged.

“Yes” was Piper’s only intelligible reply – the rest was moaning. And it was mere seconds until she gasped. “I’m gon – Blue I’m gonna – ” and began to tense up.

 _Come for me, Piper. That’s it. Come for me._ Nora kept her rhythm, coaxing Piper’s orgasm, and pressed just a little harder with her lips to Piper’s ear and –

Piper’s body arched hard like before, nearly right out of Nora’s lap, and she moaned so loudly it was almost a scream. She might’ve woken up the block. Nora had to nearly hold her down to keep pleasuring her, and she could feel Piper bucking against her arms and watched her head lolling back onto her shoulder, face contorted in pleasure.

 _God! Oh, Blue, Jesus, it’s never been like this_.

Nora reveled in her, feeling as her body came down to rest flush against Nora’s again, damp with sweat, limbs slackening as Nora stilled her circles and began to push a steady pressure against Piper’s core to help her come down. When she had, Nora kissed her hair and grabbed Piper’s one ratty quilt to cover them with. She didn’t say a word – didn’t want to disturb the sound of Piper’s breathing, ragged, loud, beautiful. Piper tilted her head towards Nora, put her face in the crook of Nora’s neck and then, when that wasn’t close enough, curled her whole body into Nora’s so that Nora had to scoot them down and they ended up laying with Nora on her back and Piper in the crook of her arm like she’d been made to fit there.

Finally Piper opened her eyes, those dazzling green, now dark, shining eyes and kissed Nora gently and said “Thank you. For treating me so well.” And Piper kissed her again, longer but still chaste, pouring every ounce of love she had into Nora, and said “I love you, Blue.” And Nora said it back, a croak, tears in the back of her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longest chapter is sex chapter I apologize for nothing.


	44. Coffeemaker of the Commonwealth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2/2  
> In the great traditions of morning-after fanfic chapters, now with like 20% more plot.

Nora awoke suddenly to a tapping sound. It was a persistent, quick, brash rap that seemed louder than it had a right to.

It was downright obnoxious. Nora knew immediately it was Piper.

She opened her eyes to see Piper at her desk, lost in thought, rapidly tapping her pen against her yellow steno notebook.

“What time is it?” Nora asked, muffled by the quilt.

“Hey.” Piper ceasing her tapping and replied in a tone that could only be called sultry. “Lovely night.”

“Mmmm.” Nora agreed, and when Piper leaned over her to kiss her cheek she took more, grabbing at the neck of Piper’s shirt and drawing her down into a proper kiss.

When they broke apart, Nora caught Piper’s very subtle wrinkle of the nose.

“I have morning breath, don’t I?” She asked, defeated, swinging her feet out and sitting up on the bed. _Perfect start_.

“It’s cute. Kind of.” Piper smirked, digging in her pocket for a moment and producing a single stick of gum. “Here.”

Nora took the gum and popped it in her mouth with only a muffled thank you. Then, feeling clever, she said “You know, I don’t usually get morning breath. What was the last thing I put in my mouth last night? –” but Nora’s joke was interrupted by a truly expert scoff from Piper followed by a light smack to the arm.

“Careful there doll, I’m regretting being nice and giving you that gum.”

“You can come take it back, if you like.”

At that Piper swallowed a stammer. “Trying to get me to leave, Blue?”

“Just the opposite. I though you found my wit attractive.”

“I do.”

“Ouch. Ok, we’re even.”

“Actually I believe you owe me a piece of gum.” Piper joked, quickly adding. “A _different_ piece of gum, thank you.”

“You’re very demanding, you know. Relationship day two and you already want unchewed gum.”

“Relationship?”

Nora froze. “Oh, well…I mean…” _Shit shit shit_ Nora thought, mildly panicking.

Piper was silent for only a second before she flashed a truly beautiful smile at Nora.

“I’ve wanted someone like you in my life for a long time, dollface. Don’t think I’m letting you get away now. Of course I’m your girl.” She leaned forward to give Nora another kiss, sweeter this time, lingering, and then dropped back into her chair. Nora’s heart clenched so tightly she thought she might die.

“Piper.”

“Hm?”

“You’re fantastic.” Nora’s goofy grin told Piper she was absolutely sincere. _God, that stupid handsome face_ , Piper thought.

“And you haven’t even had your coffee.” Piper gestured at an untouched, steaming mug on the dresser, clearly for Nora.

“You made coffee? How long have you been up?”

“Long enough to get the scoop from Nat before she left for work. Clever trick you pulled. Spying through the window, note under the door, cash bribe, coming in as she went out. It had all the makings of a good covert operation.” Piper mused, moving from her chair to the bed and leaning close enough to Nora to feel her heat.

“I thought it went smoothly. I got the girl, after all.”

“That you did, Blue.” Piper kissed her, slowly and softly, fingers grazing her scar and making it tingle. “That you did.”

Nora wrapped Piper up in her arms and pulled her down to bed, Piper’s squeal of delight and full laughter filling the room.

Her cool legs intertwined with Nora’s and when Nora reached up a hand to brush thick black hair from Piper’s face they shared that unmistakable look.

_I want you._

Piper began to move above her, rolling her hips against Nora, and when Nora bent one knee up for her she sighed and pushed down and somehow they’d gotten her shorts and underwear off and now she rocked into Nora hot and slick on her bare thigh.

Nora was mesmerized.

By the sway of Piper’s breasts under her shirt; she wasn’t wearing a bar and Nora could watch the fabric laying over the peaks of her perfect breasts. Nora could snake a hand up and feel them.

By Piper’s body, full and open in the light of day, the soft lines of her waist curving down and cutting in to a crop of soft, curly hair where her body met Nora’s. Nora could run her fingers over it, soft and pliant.

By the glazed look in Piper’s eyes right before she screwed them shut and tossed her head back, an oath on her lips, only a whisper.

Nora was just about to speak when Piper silenced her with two fingers, letting them linger on Nora’s open and panting lips and caress her scar. So instead Nora encircled Piper’s hips with warm hands and moved with her, pushing the reporter down harder on her thigh. Piper lost her focus and slumped forward, face in the crook of Nora’s neck, back muscles twitching in pleasure and effort.

“Doll, I’m close.” Piper managed to half-rasp into Nora’s hair, and Nora only gripped her tighter and rocked her thigh harder until Piper cried out in her arms, pleasure coursing through her like wildfire, her fingers and toes tingling with the last of her orgasm. She let herself collapse into Nora’s sturdy chest and be wrapped in her strong limbs as the taller woman showered her with kisses and whispered words that sounded like benedictions.

When Piper finally had the strength to lift herself, she saw Nora’s face, a mix of wonderment and devilishness, and almost blushed at it. But the expression didn’t stay for long. Soon, Piper was trailing hot kisses down her breasts, across her bellybutton, and lower – causing Nora to jerk in surprise.

“Pipes! I…ah…” Nora’s belly fluttered; excitement, nervousness.

“Everything ok there Blue? Mmmm. Because I’m feeling pretty fine, myself.” Piper husked through a grin, mouth on Nora’s ribs and then taking a nipple into her mouth.

“I…yes, yes. Very yes.” Nora squirmed, chuckled nervously. “But I haven’t…no one has done this for me in a long time. In years.”

Piper stopped where she had been running her teeth gently across Nora, expression washing from disbelief to sadness to…a pure, hopeful smile. “We don’t have to do anything, if you don’t want. But I’d like to.” She nipped again. “I’d _really_ like to.”

So Nora took a shaky breath, nodded emphatically, and tried to relax into the mattress as Piper let her lips graze with the barest pressure over Nora’s sex.

When she finally, finally made that first swipe of her tongue through Nora the taller woman couldn’t help but buckle and keen Piper’s name, so much that Piper had to gentle her with kisses for long minutes and let her relax again.

Piper worked her like this, steady and slow, until she was used to the feel of Piper’s tongue circling over her clit and at her entrance. Enough that the smaller woman could establish a rhythm and begin to feel Nora move with her, move like she was going to come, and then two iron strong hands were in her hair and all Piper could do was hold on and think to herself _fuck yes_ as Nora absolutely came apart below her, jerking against the bed and moaning a low and steady sound deep in her throat.

And when Piper crawled back up Nora’s body, languid and satisfied, she kissed her survivor like she was marking her.

-

“Mmmm, five more minutes.” Piper mumbled into Nora’s shoulder.

“I wish I could.” Nora nuzzled into Piper’s thick hair. “But I…Shaun has asked me to meet him. _Outside_ the Institute, in the ruins of CIT.”

“Wait, _what_?” Piper tensed, half-rising, to look Nora in the eye. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I didn’t want you to worry.” Piper made a sour face at that. “I’m sorry. I…ah. I don’t know what I’m going to say. I don’t know how suspicious he is about Bunker Hill, or what he’s going to ask of me.”

“You should’ve told me, Blue. It could be a trap.”

Nora nodded. “It’s possible.”

“Then I’m coming.” Piper rose all the way and climbed out of bed, already starting to collect her gear.

“What?”

“You need to approach him without armor, without weapons. You need to look completely trustworthy. I can stay hidden, stay a few hundred yards behind you. Your body guard.”

“How _closely_ are you planning on guarding my body?”

“Do you _ever_ want to have sex again?”

“Oh god, yeah. Yeah I absolutely do.”

Piper laughed, pushed Nora playfully by the face, and kissed her one last time before returning to her prep. “Come on then survivorgirl. You’ve got a Directorate to sweet-talk.”

-

“You know, in all my years I’ve never set foot outside the Institute. Not once since the day they brought me in. I’ve never had a reason. But now, this just confirms the truth I’ve always known: the Commonwealth is dead.”

 _You damned fool. Cossetted in your city of robots._ Nora’s face was a practiced mask.

“There’s no future here. The only hope for humanity lies below.”

 _No! My future is here! Families, children, people rebuilding the world_ Nora bristled inside. Her face remain placid and unchanged. How had she come to hold such desperate affection for this ruined place, against all likelihood? It was Piper; it must’ve been. Anything with her in it was worth saving – better, worth loving, worth protecting.

“But now, here you are. Ah, I should ask: how was your visit with Ms. Piper Wright?”

Nora froze. Every ounce of effort she possessed worked to hold her composure. _He knows about us_.

“Ah, yes.” Shaun continued. “I know of her, and of your relationship to her. In fact, the only aspect of your interaction with this reporter that I do not understand, Mother, is how you can maintain such a close relationship to a woman who spreads such damaging paranoia and misinformation about the Institute when you yourself have risked your life time and again for our cause. Are you not truly with us?”

_This is it. This is the hardest lie I’ll ever have to tell him._

“Of course I am, Shaun. I didn’t really want to have this conversation with my _son_ , but the truth is, it doesn’t matter. You know what it’s like here.” Nora gestured towards the horizon. “It’s ruins. It’s terrible, and it’s…lonely. She’s a bedwarmer, Shaun, and having her with me gives me access. Diamond City, Goodneighbor. But she’s stubborn and trying to change her mind just isn’t worth the trouble when it won’t even matter in a few weeks. I won’t need her.”

“Ah.” Shaun paused, thoughtful. _Did I sell it?_ “I see. It may not seem so to you, but I am worldly enough to understand. We are simpatico, you and I. Many people would mistake your comments for coldness, but I know better, Mother. I know the ambition and practicality in my own personality was a gift from you.”

-

Piper watched the conversation unfold from her protected vantage across the roof. She wished she could hear the words, because if Nora’s body language was any indication – her face, practiced and calm, gave nothing away, but Piper knew what she did with her shoulders and hands when she was uncomfortable – well, if it was any indication this was not going particularly well. Piper was just about to attempt to lip-read when abruptly Shaun stopped talking, stood back, and vanished in a bolt of blue.

For a heartbeat Piper flashed back to Bunker Hill, watching Nora disappear in blue and leave only blood behind.

She shook her head and looked back to Nora who was now jogging across the roof towards her, Dogmeat nipping at her heals.

“Pipes.” She panted. “I have to go back, right now. I’m sorry.”

“What? What happened? Does he –”

“He’s suspicious. He…he knows about you. Us.”

“Oh.” Piper’s face whitened. “Does he know I’m Railroad?”

“No. But we have to be _careful_. And I have to dig my cover deeper. Tell Des.” She kneeled down and ruffled Dogmeat’s ears - “Go with Piper, boy” – and stood back up to face the reporter. “I’m going to be gone for a while. And Piper. I am going to have to lie, a lot. A lot. But no matter what you hear, _no matter what_ , don’t you ever forget how I really feel about you.”

Piper cut her off with a kiss, fierce and strong enough to last. A cool Boston breeze blew their hair in whirls as they separated.

“Promise me, Blue.”

“I promise.”

And when Nora stepped back and flashed away Piper shielded her eyes because she didn’t think she could stand to see that blue light again.


	45. Deep Cover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1/2  
> She lives!  
> Sorry for the long update I was traveling for the holidays.

“No, I can’t stress enough how unwise I think this course of action is!” Nora finally raised her voice and rose from her seat, watching each of the board turn towards her in surprise. Justin Ayo flapped his mouth as if he was going to speak but couldn’t. “Laying out a militarily aggressive stance just as we’re making contact for the first time, officially, is a massive mistake.”

“You might be misunderstanding the way the Institute is run.” It was Madison Li, cold and hard, who was the one to speak up. “This is not a democracy, or whatever collectivist, feudalistic form of governance you’ve become accustomed to from the Commonwealth. You are only the _director_ of the board. The board has made its decision. We have to act decisively. It’s not ideal, but our hand has been forced.”

“No, you’re right. This is a geniocracy. And you’re still making a mistake. Our hand isn’t forced if we don’t allow it to be.”

“It’s not a geniocracy when we’re _all_ geniuses.” Allie Fillmore cut in snidely. “Look, you may be the Director- _elect_ , so to speak, but you have to accommodate us, not the other way around.”

“And where did this pacifist streak suddenly come from?” Clayton Holdren asked. “That speech you recorded for the radio was hardly doveish. You made us sound almost menacing. What did you expect?”

 _Fuck._ It was true. Nora had tried hard then to skirt the line between what the Institute would find acceptable and what the Commonwealth would find frightening. She wanted to warn them as much as she could, legitimize people’s fear, prepare them subtly in the event of open hostilities.

And now, here they were, and it was Nora who had helped usher it along. Slowly she sat down and ran her fingers through hair – undercut again, with Anchorage stripes – a polite _fuck you_ to the Institute.

“We know your hesitation on this issue is because of your ties to the Railroad.” Justin Ayo finally spoke with that shit-eating grin of his. “But you shouldn’t have any problem wiping them out, right? You’re not one of them, after all.” He accused in barely-veiled sarcasm.

He was fucking pushing her buttons. It was no secret they decoded the courser chip. She had been working these past weeks with precious few nights spent on the surface to convince them that was the extent of their relationship. And after everything she’d sacrificed to maintain her cover, here they were. She’d made enemies of the Brotherhood who, although Nora knew they were too exclusionary and militaristic to not conflict with eventually, Nora still believed were essentially good people. She had killed so many of them. And a piece of herself in the process.

She’d run across the Commonwealth like the Institute’s personal Kellogg replacement puppet, finding people and blueprints and sending out radio signals to scare the locals. She’d brokered a deal with fucking Biosciences even when they had _tried to kill her_.

And she had held her rage and maintained her cover when, one quiet and uneasy night in Diamond City, after Nora finally opened up about the Institute, Piper had felt comfortable enough to tell her through tears about what she’d found at Ticonderoga and how she’d barely made it out.

“Very well.” Nora spoke finally, cooly. “We will focus on synth production for now. Gen 1s and 2s. They are the fastest to construct and are our true strength in combat. Settler’s forces on the surface are always thin, so we can overwhelm them with numbers, especially since our rifle and pistol technology is already superior to most of the improvised weapons used above ground. Keep Gen 3 production steady. I will speak to Father about dealing with the Railroad.”

She stood up and walked out.

_Three days; that’s all I need. Walk around, be engaged, be seen, make an excuse to slip away to the surface. Like always. Just three days._

-

Diamond City had been exquisite, Nora thought – it had been restful and relaxed and filled with a kind of quiet closeness between her and Piper that she wasn’t sure she’d ever felt with anyone. She had needed it so bad, after the Institute. Maybe it was the contrast between this life and the life-and-death stresses of maintaining cover or surviving in the Commonwealth; maybe it was that with Nate, her domesticity had almost been for show – not to others but at least certainly to herself. Maybe it was just that Piper was different. She felt so different.

Slowly but surely Nora had found herself closer and closer to Piper outside of their cocoon of privacy that was Publick Occurrences. She noticed her arm wrapping around Piper out in the marketplace, almost of its own volition. She noticed how close they began to stand to one another. She noticed when Piper threaded her strong fingers gently through her own with a slight pinking of her cheeks to lead her somewhere.

And why not? They needn’t hide from the Institute. Nora needn’t hide at all.

So it was Nora who brought up the idea to Piper of dinner out tonight.

A real old-world date. A radio show, dinner in the upper stands, drinks back at Piper’s.

Piper chuckled at Nora, taking another sip from her Gwinnet. The reporter was dressed simply but beautifully in a long red dress, hair down, one thin metal bangle on her right wrist.

 “So, this is a real old-world date, huh?”

“Mm-hm.” Nora nodded, also sipping. “What did you think? Did I woo you?”

Piper half-scoffed, set her drink down, and turned Nora’s face towards hers with one sure hand.

“Well, you certainly look wonderful, Blue. You always cut a handsome figure in a collared shirt.”

“Too…er, masculine?”

Piper this time quirked up her eyebrow.

“Right, right, old-world norms, gotta get with the times. But, this is an old-world date, you know. And, me? No.” Nora shook her head. _Piper, you are a vision_. “Piper, you are a vision.”

 _Goddammit_.

Piper blushed and shook her head. “Don’t overplay your hand, doll. Besides, I feel naked without my hat.”

Nora quirked a brow. “Should I run with that?”

Piper hummed approvingly before putting her beer down and letting Nora lean in to her.

When Nora kissed her she simply melted against her. Nora could feel her lips part willingly, her head cant back just enough to give Nora more access. Her body pressed fully and hotly into the taller woman, opening. Giving herself.

“Fucking SHENG KAWOLSKI!” Nat yelled as the door to the Publick banged open without a preamble and by the time it had slammed behind her and she’d thrown her shoulder bag on the ground Piper had put about three feet between herself and Nora and was sipping her Gwinnet like a bad imitation of _act natural_.

Nat was not fooled.

“Oh, geez. Gross.” Nat made a dry heaving motion and picked up her bag by the strap, heading out again.

“Wait, Nat.” Nora spoke up, standing from the couch. “We were just having beers.”

“That’s not what they called it in health class.”

“You’re too smart for your own good, you know that Nat?” Nora joked, giving Piper time to arrange herself. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Nat grumbled, apparently indecisive about whether she should stay or leave. As she hovered there by the door Piper put her beer down, stood up, brushed off her dress, and came around to Nora.

“I hate to do this, Blue.” She whispered in the taller woman’s ear, on tiptoes to reach her. “But, can we have a minute alone? I think I need to talk to Nat.”

“Of course.” Nora whispered back with a soft kiss to Piper’s temple before raising her voice and turning back to the littlest Wright. “Hey, Nat, I’m being sent out for dessert. Requests?”

“Oh, uh. Nothing. Thanks.” She shuffled her feet.

“Nuka Cherry?”

Nat paused, nodded furiously, and scampered to her room.

Nora caught Piper’s eyes on her way out and the reporter mouthed a silent _thank you_ to her as she closed the door behind her.

“So, um, Sheng, huh?” Piper asked, trying to sound casual as she leaned against the “door” to Nat’s room.

“We don’t have to talk about it.” Nat said flippantly, opening a comic book and turning away from Piper.

“No, we don’t. But if you want to…” Piper ventured, walking into Nat’s space slowly and sitting side-saddle next to her cot. “We can. I won’t even be pushy about it.”

Nat made a pssht sound but Piper could see her smile and she slowly put down her comic to face Piper.

“I miss Dad. He’d tell me what to do about Sheng.”

Piper nodded. They’d had this conversation many times. “I miss him too, Nat. He’d be so proud of you.”

“I miss you. You’re always gone.”

Piper stilled at that. Nat had grumbled about it before but never said anything so openly.

“Sorry.” Nat said, cooly. She picked her comic back up.

“No, don’t be sorry Nat.” Piper reached out and lowered the comic book, and Nat didn’t stop her. “Hey, look at me.” The older woman took a deep breath before continuing. “I know I’ve been away a lot. I know you hate it that there are things I can’t tell you. I wish I could. _I miss you too_.” She confessed, reaching out to hold Nat’s hand. “You know I love you.”

The smaller girl nodded, eyes downcast, and mumbled out a “Love you too” too the floor. Still, Piper smiled.

“I know sometimes I treat you like a little kid…but you’re 13 now and you’re really grown up. Sometimes it scares me how grown up you are.” Piper confessed, and Nat’s expression was mild shock. “I’ve spent a lot of time worrying about how what I do affects us. I’ve spent a lot of time worrying about what I could do to protect you from…me.”

“Whatever, P – ”

“No, Nat, I’m serious. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking maybe it was best if I was away a little. Maybe it was best if I didn’t bring trouble into your life. But…I realized that I can’t stop, _we_ can’t stop, doing what’s right. And that means that I have to trust you. So, I do. I trust you to be on your own, I trust you to be safe, to understand. And, I trust you to remember what we talked about when it came to boys.”

“I can always ask you for stuff from Polly. And I better not do anything that could get me pregnant until I’m 45.”

Piper chuckled, and Nat even laughed a little. “Yeah, don’t forget it, _nobody_.” Piper stabbed the air genially. “But you know, it’s not just about keeping your body safe. Take it from me. The difference between not caring about the person you’re with and loving the person you’re with, it’s…” Piper hung her head, smiling to herself a little. “Well. You should just know that you deserve someone who will make you feel like...”

“Like Blue?”

“Yeah. Like Blue. Like you’re precious. Because you are, Nat. You’re _special_.”

Nat nodded silently, turning away from Piper again, and finally quietly said “What you’re doing with her is really dangerous, isn’t it?”

Piper sighed. She knew this was wrapped up in it, too. “Yeah, Nat. It’s really dangerous. But we have to keep fighting. Soon, when it’s over, I’ll tell you all about it. We’ll write the article together.”

“Ok.”

“Ok?”

Nat nodded again and then in a rush hugged Piper, her tiny body curling under Piper’s chin, and all Piper could do was hug back and let her tears prick her eyes unhindered.

Quietly the sound of the door opening in the living room roused the sisters from their embrace. Nora walked in with a package under one arm and two Nuka Cherry’s in her other hand, and the Wright sisters stood up and wiped their noses and smiled at the offerings of dessert and at woman who brought them.


	46. Where I Go You Can't Follow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 2/2  
> It's all happening

Piper laid down on her side along Nora, letting one hand settle on the taller woman’s sternum. Piper had always had restless fingers, and Nora had learned to love the feel of them stroking or twitching against her arm or leg or back absently, just like now.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Piper asked after a few minutes of simple closeness.

Nora opened her eyes and turned to the reporter, rearranging herself so that Piper laid in the crook of her arm. “Just thinking.”

“Uh-huh. And I’m paying for those thoughts here, Blue. You’re on the clock.” She said playfully.

“Hmpf.” Nora smiled wryly.

A million things were pressing Nora into Piper’s bed tonight. Nora saw Liam’s face, fresh and clean, too naïve to notice the way Nora’s expression curled at him as she told him they were with him completely.

_You are a hero to the Railroad, Liam. We’re going to save your people. We are with you._

Z1’s hard chiseled face twitching with a ghost of cruelty and anger as he told Nora about the “excavation accident.” The raw materials. The war plans.

A similar ghostly pallor on Des, working late in the catacombs, nearly falling asleep standing over her maps and figures. The almost imperceptible whir of PAM cracking passwords for some archaic Institute system, the barest threadbare hope of breaking in somehow blossoming into an actual plan. And then into a lie.

Piper, stitching aluminum bars into her Heavy armor to replace the lead plates, late at night on the couch in her living room, feet extended out onto Nora’s lap. Bars Nat had left without comment, made perfectly to fit the flak pocket of Piper’s armor, each made carefully by hand.

Piper, the most precious thing. Piper who gave fleeting glances like making love.

“So many things.” Nora paused, eyes closing harder. “You. Us.”

Piper perked up at that. “What about, doll?”

That pet name never failed to make Nora feel warm all over. She squeezed Piper closer before turning on her side to face her fully. Piper brushed a short lock of hair from Nora’s face, other hand never moving from its place over her heart.

“Do you ever worry about us?”

“Constantly.”

“I mean, about you and me.” Nora correctly almost sheepishly.

“What’s there to worry about?” Piper knitted her brows, worried. “Did I –?”

“No. God, no. I mean. Sometimes I realize how much older I am. I’m going to be 31 soon Piper.”

“23 years is a lot longer than in seems in the wasteland, Blue. I was on my own at 16.”

“And that’s not even, I mean. Don’t you ever feel like we’re from different planets?”

Piper considered her carefully. “Should I?”

“No. I guess not.”

“Where is this coming from?”

“I’m happy with you.” Nora said matter-of-factly. “Growing up, even a year ago, I never thought I’d be…”

“With a woman.”

Nora nodded. “I’m happy, I get these flashes of happiness. Even though everything we’re doing it’s…”

“War.”

Nora nodded again.

“Relationships established in a hail of gunfire rarely work out.” Piper said matter-of-factly and Nora sucked in a breath as she felt her stomach twist. For a second she couldn’t speak, like the air had been punched out of her. “You’re assuming that I think that’s what we’re doing.” Piper let her hand move from Nora’s chest to cradle her cheek. “That is _not_ what this is, Blue. I feel like I fell in love with you during the quiet times.” Piper gently played with Nora’s scar; a new habit. “That time I caught you teaching Nat that it’s more honorable to build something up than break it down.”

“You heard all that?”

“I have excellent ears.”

“The night we did the interview. Huddled around firelight in a shack on the river.” Nora recalled, voice wistful.

“Already by then?” Piper teased.

“Always, maybe. Meeting you outside Diamond City and thinking you were an absolute pile of trouble.”

“Psht.” Piper waved dismissively, but still blushed. “Valentine’s Christmas party.”

“When you cut in on Valentine to dance with me.”

“ _Radiatin’ through and through…baby, it’s just you_.” Piper sung low and sweet and Nora couldn’t stand it anymore – just silenced her with a kiss and put the bed to use.

-

She remembered the first night she tasted Piper, musky and coppery against her tongue. She remembered the sounds Piper had made, pleasure and surprise and lust rumbling out so deep it was like they were coming straight from her chest. The way the petit woman stiffened underneath her, cresting, before arching near off the bed. How her eyes had met Nora’s, looking up from between her legs like a satisfied predator, for only half a second before she had to close her eyes against the pleasure.

The whole world in half a second –

“Mother. Did you hear what I said?” Shaun’s voice cut through her reverie cold and expectant.

“Yes.” Nora let her memories fade as she turned back to Shaun from where she’d been looking out his office window onto the concourse below. The memories had become shelter for her more and more as the machine of war quickened beneath her, underground. It was only with Piper in her life that remembering anything was an escape at all. Piper, safe at Headquarters, away from here. “Yes son. This course of action is not a surprise. Frankly it was worrying me how cavalier the Institute was about the Railroad for so long. I agree we need to take action.”

 _What was it that he’d said? To kill all of them,_ Nora thought. _Put the rumors of my alliance with them to rest._

“Excellent. Be in touch with the SRB about plans to move. We are closing in on their headquarters location. It is deep in the city where the Gen 1s don’t do as well, so we’ll need a team of Coursers.”

“A large team.” Nora said absently, turning back to the window. She could see Synths and scientists milling about below. Z1 was raking in the gardens as usual. “Four, five at least. Do you know their numbers?”

“Many, but weak.” Nora nodded, still looking out the window. Z1 lifted his head, and, finding Nora watching him, made eye contact. He held it for just a second too long before slowly beginning to rake again. “And unlike the Brotherhood we never had plants with them. We will have to strike from the outside, I’m afraid.”

“Does the SRB support this decision?” Nora stalled, watching Z1 carefully. Again he stopped and looked directly at her.

“Of course. A team of five may be hard to gather, politically speaking, but as the new Director I advise you to stand firm. Convince them of the danger the Railroad poses.”

“That should not be difficult.” Nora said blankly as she turned back again. Her mind was reeling, down with Z1, down with Desdemona, down with Piper. “I’ll let them know of my requirements.”

“I’m proud of you, Mother.” If Shaun noticed her absence, he did not comment. “We are growing much stronger with your leadership.”

She smiled, hugged him without touching their bodies together, and let the sliding doors say goodbye.

Immediately she went to the gardens. Z1, ever vigilant, gravitated just barely to her as she sat, pretending to check her Pip-Boy. Anyone observing – even Liam, maybe – would never know.

“You must act now. The Brotherhood of Steel has discovered the location of the Railroad.” He whispered.

Nora froze. His words had been so calm. So even. He could not have said –

“Go. Now.” Z1 said, the same tone, the same inflection, but somehow harsher and more frightened. To her own surprise Nora’s hands were already queuing her teleport.

The flash of blue light brought no attention to Z1, but if it had it wouldn’t have mattered to Nora. She knew as she turned that last knob that she would never be back without a gun in her hand.

_Hold on Pipes._


	47. War Never Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I finished and I'm excited so here's the whole rest of the story all at once ok.
> 
> Nora races the Brotherhood to Railroad HQ

A corner of the ragged brick wall of the catacombs caught Nora across the shoulder of her power armor and exploded out, a deadened and dusty sound. It didn’t register to Nora. The sound of her Power Armor being pushed at run like a freight train filled her head.

Des was the first to see – or hear – her barrel past Glory and through the door and into the center of headquarters. Her fingers tensed around her cigarette and with one glance passed between them, Des knew.

“We have a crisis. The Brotherhood’s on their way _here_.” Nora yelled through the com on her helmet, distorted and garbled. She whipped around trying to spot Piper.

“What, what are you talking about?” Des stammered, dropping the butt of her cigarette. Tom peaked up from behind her, and Deacon, and Glory.

And Piper.

Nora snapped like a rubber band.

“You’re still alive. I got here in time.” Nora gasped only to herself. “They are coming Des. Now!”

“Jesus. Mobilize!” Des shot Glory a look and the synth hefted her minigun and was already out the door. “You, you, reinforce Glory in the tunnels.” She shouted. “Deacon, Friday, here with us.”

“Piper, armor!” Nora shouted over Des, but the reporter was already engaging the lock on the set Nora kept at Headquarters, a T-51 set painted dark. Presets for Piper’s size snapped into place as she climbed in, grabbed her gun, and wheeled around.

“We have to stop meeting like this!” Piper quipped, not able to keep the thinnest of fear out of her voice.

“I –.” Nora started, but it felt wrong. She wanted it to be like in the mornings, after Nat went to work, just the two of them and the sun.

“I know. Me too.” Piper growled through the static of her com. “But the next time we say that it’s not going to be through a PA helmet under fire and just because we’re scared we’re going to die, do you understand me? It’s going to be you and me, safe, _home_.”

Nora was halfway through her response when she heard the sound. Like the brick wall that she crumbled only seconds ago but on an enormous scale. Like thunder inside the church. Like an earthquake.

The wall behind Tom burst open violently, sending him sprawling in the dust as a set of T-60 climbed through spraying laser fire. Someone, Railroad, screamed and crumpled just as Nora swung around and fired, hot sparks flying off her target but not stopping it.

Des had scrambled somewhere, no armor, barely any cover, and so Nora blocked the hallway with her body and let loose, every bit she had, right through the eyeplate of the Knight until he ducked away and it was Piper’s blast under Nora’s arm that killed him.

But not before someone behind him got off a grenade. Nora watched it in terror as it arched over her shoulder, towards Des, and everyone dove and the sound, God the sound of it, bursting inside her helmet in hot pain and rocking the building.

Another Agent lay below her, dead. Nora hadn’t curled around her properly and both of his legs were gone.

Des was alive, maybe. Nora thought she heard her as her automatic tore down the catacomb hallway. Piper was up, a legplate missing, still firing but falling back. Both Tom and Des were vulnerable, and Deacon was off somewhere and Piper was protecting them but Nora tore ahead with her gunfire, making it out in front of the other Agents who were prepped for combat, watching another one of them fall into the blood-soaked dust and garbling. Something about honor, or valor. Nora clenched.

Laser fire glanced off her chestplate, Tesla coils crackling in the dust-filled air. Her nostrils filled with the burn of gunpowder and the smell of cooking blood. She was shooting less at a targets and more into the dust and darkness.

And then it stopped. Voices echoed behind her – or ahead of her – and then it was silent.

They were all dead. Bodies of the Brotherhood smoldered under and over bodies of fallen Agents. Piles of bricks had accumulated in the catacomb hallways.

Nora ran back to the center of the room and Piper was gesturing and Des was speaking but Nora couldn’t hear a damn thing, until she realized she heard ringing, high and painful ringing, and then slowly sound began to return.

“…thank God for that. You and the others go help Glory. Win that fight or we’re all dead!” Des screamed, breaking through the dust, pulling a gauss rifle out of the hands of a dead friend.

-

Desdemona looked like a different woman with tears streaming down her face. She didn’t really look like she was crying, her face stony as ever. But when Nora had said those words in hushed tones – _Glory is dead, Des_ – in the newly ringing silence of Old North, a pall fell over the Railroad that not even Des could command away. Tom and Deacon stood frozen. Piper held herself up with only the weight of her Power Armor.

“We’re going to kill those bastards.” Des finally bit out. Everyone bristled. “We’re going to take down the Prydwen. Tom!” She whipped around to him and he yelped, straightening up. “Operation Red Glare is a go.”

“Wha – Des…are you sure? Sure, sure?”

“Do what I say, Tom. They will not rest until we are eradicated. This was a small mission to them, and they underestimated us. It will not happen again. Deacon, Tom, Friday, Wanderer. The rest stay here to reinforce. Pull back Agents from Bunker and Diamond City. Pull back Outposts Tennyson and Bernard.”

“We’re gonna need a vertibird, Des.” Deacon said, unsure, into this new tension.

“Then Wanderer will get us one.” She commanded, and Nora found herself standing, legs wide, shoulders square, saying “Yes I fucking will.”


	48. Red, White and Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Prydwen comes down.
> 
> Departure from cannon in which only Tom and Deacon run the mission up to the Prydwen and Nora and Piper prep the Minutemen, because I felt like that was more realistic and I didn't want our gals to have to kill that many civilians.

“Shit, shit man. Are they here? Can they see us? Shit. Shit!” Tom grappled at his headgear with both hands, wild, ducking and standing and ducking again.

“Tom, calm down.” Nora placated. “Tom! Hey, hey, it’s ok. It’s ok man. They are not watching. They are not tracking us. They are not expecting us.” She tried to make her voice measured, calm. “For once, we are ahead of them.”

“Deep breaths, Tom.” Piper added, softer than Nora. Always better at this sort of thing. She let her hand fall on his shoulder, comforting and steady. “We’re doing ok. We’re ok. We’re going to go in there first, ok, and you’re going to hang back with Deacon.

“Cambridge Police Station is a small outpost. If we’re going to get a vertibird we’re going to get it here. We stand a good chance.” Nora finished commandingly.

“Nothing to it.” Pipe quipped.

Tom choked, swallowed, and finally nodded. Deacon passed a look at the two women that was a cross between _sorry_ and _thank you_ before tuning his head oddly and freezing. Hand on the butt of his gun.

“Deacon?”

“Quiet.”

Nora grabbed her rifle, and Piper grabbed hers, and Deacon coiled like a cat and moved and suddenly there was heat in the air all around them.

“They heard us, shit!” Deacon hissed from somewhere behind, in the darkness. Nora fired off a shot, and then other, taking a Brotherhood Initiate out at the abdomen.

“Scatter!” Nora said as she gestured and then her hands were both back on her weapon, tearing off shot after shot at a Knight in Power Armor.

Piper cut across, flanking, and put herself in the light on purpose to draw fire. Nora could take the time to be pissed about that later, because it worked and Deacon made a hole. The Knight couldn’t focus on all three of them and it was a rifle round to the neck that felled him. The others, running down from the Cambridge Police Station, dove for cover, but Deacon had already wheeled around behind them and three rapid bursts of fire told Nora they rest were dead. The shock of blood sprayed across the ancient gray asphalt underfoot as Nora walked up to the station was just confirmation.

The station itself was undermanned. Rhys died first, right at the door. Right where Nora had first met him. It was Piper’s shot, one in the head without hesitation, that painted him against the doorframe and down the wall.

But watching Haylen die, that was the hard part. Nora had screamed at her, firing into the hallways left and right, to lay down her gun. But it was too much for Haylen, losing her brothers like that. Guessing, maybe, what Nora was about to do. So she died fighting, and when Deacon took the shot it made Nora sick to think that he didn’t know – none of them knew – that she was one of the good ones. That she was good and whole and wanted to be a hero.

Nora didn’t tell them. She just closed Haylen’s eyes and put her rifle on her chest.

“Ready for flight prep Tom?” Nora called out across the room without any discernable inflection, except to Piper, who could hear the desperation in her voice.

“Hurry up, Tom.” Piper said, deflecting for Nora. “Before I start thinking about how nuts this plan is.”

-

If the sound of the Brotherhood storming the Old North catacombs was an earthquake, this sound was the rending of the earth; a cacophony, a booming that filled Nora’s vision and her voice and every vein and bone and when she hunched down at her knees in the sand of Nordhagen Beach and Piper hunched over her and Nora realized how close they were to the explosion, how she could see hot embers fling across the roiling waters of the bay. And she realized Piper was protecting her.

The Prydwen went down, down, like a ripped bag, like a falling building, and when it hit the water somehow it was louder. There was a scream – steam, a wave, the crushing of rock and metal and bodies. There was the soundless death of hundreds of men.

And women.

And children. Those children. How had Nora not remembered them until right now?

“All those people on the Prydwen. All those lives. But there was no other way…right?”

Nora shook her head. “There was no other way” she replied, empty. She watched as one lone vertibird tore away from the heat and fire and waves of water. Tom and Deacon, against all odds, flying close enough over Nora and Piper that the women could hear their hoots and hollers.

_They did it. They took down the Prydwen._

_I should’ve been on board. It was my trigger to push._

_No. You’re not alone here. Not anymore._

Suddenly Nora was rushed by Minutemen, ready and angry and scared. The bay burned behind them like the whole of the Commonwealth was aflame, and it reflected in the eyes of her men red and hot. Nora yelled with the steely command of a General. Organized them to prepare for attacks from survivors, to begin to stock provisions, to double supply lines and night shifts. Yelled with utter confidence, utter control.

Again, only Piper could see the way her fingers curled at her sides that said _God please forgive us_.

 -

“I’m scared, Blue.” Piper whispered.

She was adjusting the helmet on her armor when she stopped, frozen, and dropped her head, confessional posture. Des and Tom and the others milled about in the catacombs, high-strung, tense, having taken a scant four or five hours of rest during which if anyone slept at all it was because of the IVs for “rehydration” that Carrington was passing out like candy and maybe he wasn’t so much of an ass after all.

“I know Pipes. Me too.”

“No.” She shook her head. “No, I mean. I’m…” She gestured, pointed up, around, in a way only Nora could read. _The teleporter._

“Close your eyes.”

Nora couldn’t see, but she could tell Piper had closed her eyes.

“Ok, this is it Wanderer. We need to strike the Institute and _we need to strike now_. I know we just came hot off Read Glare, but all the better. They won’t be expecting this.” _Burn the sky, burn the earth_. Nora mused. _Fitting_. “Make contact with Z1 as soon as possible, clear the teleporter room, and prepare for us. When we come in we will be moving towards the reactor. We have one charge, and one chance to blow it. We will need everything and everyone we’ve got.”

Nora nodded. She felt so far away with so much steel in between them.

“August 14th will be a day that this world will never forget.” Des finished, cigarette burning forgotten between her fingers. “Now let’s take down the Institute!”

“I’ll see you soon, Pipes. When Tom teleports you, keep your eyes closed. Hold on to him. I’ll be waiting on the other side.”

She nodded, eyes still closed.

“ _I promise_.” Nora whispered as she stepped away into the clear. Piper still did not open her eyes.

And Tom hit the switch.

-

The march through the Institute was foreign to Nora. Old Robotics was moth-eaten and chewed through with rust and she didn’t recognize anything until Biosciences, she just pinned synths in her way to the walls and tried to take as much of the fire off of the other Agents as she could, right until she lost both armplates and Piper pulled her forcibly back to flank.

From there it was like being swept into a river. Every door they burst through had rebels on the other side, growing their numbers like tributaries to a river.

They flowed through the FEV lab, no one questioning the detour, no one asking why and only Piper knowing. They hushed at the grotesque and statuesque mutants in their lit tanks. They hushed at the smell of the corpses of cats pilled in the corners of the hallways and the empty cells. They murmured to themselves things like _it’s so much worse than we thought_ or _the fucking monsters_.

They flowed out into the concourse and found all the halls blastdoored shut. And then they stopped, waters stilling around them, turning their eyes up to the speakers ringing Tom’s voice out and then back to Nora, waiting.

Waiting for her to speak to her son.


	49. One Minute to Midnight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Endgame

One keystroke; a return, familiar, and the evacuation had been called.

Another keystroke; another return, and synth guard groups 1-14 had been deactivated.

The third keystroke; the last return, the blastdoors lifted.

Nora stood up from the terminal and looked back wordlessly to her son. She had seen so many people die in such a short time but somehow watching him like that, laying in a hospital bed and waiting for the end, somehow that was worse.

Well, he wouldn’t have to wait much longer.

She began to turn away. Everything had been said. There was nothing left.

 _No_ –

There was one more thing.

“She was never a bedwarmer, Shaun.” Nora called out, clear, loud enough to carry. “She’s the good in the world. And I don’t deserve her, I never did, but she’s everything. You could never understand.”

Piper, standing outside in the hall, heard every word.

-

They stopped before the reactor room. The decontamination area was shredded up almost completely, but one lone sink still clung to the wall and, better, still ran.

Railroad Agents and rebels cleaned their wounds and reloaded their guns as the two women leading them hopped out of their Power Armor and doused themselves with water to cool off, drinking as much as they could capture with their lips during the process.

Nora, hair dripping into her face, turned towards Piper and fished around in the pocket of her jumpsuit for a second.

“Hey, Pipes, something to keep you sharp?” The taller woman held out a pitiful looking mess of wax paper, sadly misshapen from her pocket.

“That’s my line, doll.” Piper half-grinned, wringing her hair out before she reached to take the offering from Nora and examine it.

“Wait…is this…?”

“The last gumdrop in the pack. I thought you might like it. I was saving it for when we really needed it.”

“ _Blue. The_ pack?”

“From the platform.”

“Yeah. I remember…you kept it?” Piper ask incredulously.

“Well I figured it couldn’t get any staler. Besides the other ones kind of kept me alive in here so I thought it would be good to be prepared.”

Piper considered the small, squished, red bit of candy in the palm of her hand before popping it into her mouth like communion, rolling it along her tongue, and, finally, smiling back up at Nora like a child. _Strawberry_.

“One more stop, papergirl.” Nora said, the force of optimism in her voice sweeter than the candy still. “Gear up everyone! Get water if you need it. We’re storming the keep.” She said forceful, authoritative, commanding.

“Together, then.” Piper replied quietly to Nora and Nora alone as they squeezed hands before climbing back in their suits of armor and locking them tightly against the world.

-

“Mom?”

Nora limped into the teleporter. Her injuries were survivable – superficial even, a miracle – but tiredness suffused her bones. It had been a while since her son had haunted her. But no surprise it was at a time like this.

“Please Mom, don’t leave me here! I want to go with you!”

_That wasn’t –_

“Des, there’s this kid here. He said he’s Wanderer’s son.” Tom said out from the hallway and every one of them stopped moving. Piper gripped at her gun on instinct. Nora glided forward out of the teleporter like she was being carried.

And there he was.

Just like that first time she’d seen him, shut off like a puppet with cut strings. Except now he was alive and bright and blinking at her and _scared_.

“Why did you call me _mom_?”

“What?” He stuttered.

“Who told you I was your mother?” Nora said, gasping, soft. Piper stood close behind her.

“What do you mean? Nobody told me. You just are.” He said. Clear. Genuine. Sirens and evacuation warnings blaring around him. Red light flashing off the collar and arm patch of his Institute jumpsuit.

“Right.” Nora gasped, deflating. “Right, of course. I’m your mother.” She kneeled down, looking him in the eye. She snapped off her helmet, shaking her hair, shaking tears from her eyes.

“Why are you sad, Mom?”

“Today was a really hard day, S-Shaun. Bad things are happening here. But I’m so glad to see you. I’m so glad to see you.” She let one of her massive hands just barely press against his tiny cheek. She hoped that despite the armor it was gentle.

Piper touched her shoulder, fleeting but there. Her helmet was off, too. When Nora looked back at her, her eyes looked strange and glassy.

“Ok, all right, come with me. Come on Shaun. Tom is going to send you with my friends here, ok?” She nodded to Tom, Des. “They’re going to take care of you. I have something to do, but I’m going to come and get you as soon as I can.”

They stood in the teleporter room, Piper’s arm wrapped tightly around Nora’s left arm as Nora’s right settled carefully on Shaun’s back until the feeling of him disappeared underneath her and she opened her eyes to bright morning sunlight and a view of the CIT Ruins.

It was Des, in the end, who pushed the button. Who finally let herself grieve. Heat came off the explosion in waves and suddenly it was those many months ago, twenty lifetimes ago, her husband and her son in the heat of the explosion.

She wanted to reach out to Piper but she was too far away.

She felt like she was dying. Like she had died 200 years ago and her family was taking her back to the grave.

-

Glory was dead.

Patriot was dead.

His suicide note screamed hot and angry and bitter at Nora from her vault suit pocket.

Shaun’s tape, the message from Father, burned just as hot and bitter in her Pip-Boy. She was empty. Piper kept moving towards her but she couldn’t – couldn’t try, even.

Patriot was right. She was a traitor. She had betrayed.

_He doesn’t even know, Christ. He doesn’t know who he is._

“Hey, Shaun.” Nora kneeled down again, hard on the stone floor, eye level to Shaun. He had changed into a striped shirt and pants that someone had found and it suited him _. Do I hug him? Do I call myself his mother? Do I –_   But he hugged her instead, tiny arms, tiny body.

“Hey Mom.”

She answered his question as best she can. It took _everything_. The explosion and the fighting and a million other things a 10 year old boy – who _was_ , and _wasn’t_ – couldn’t understand the answers to. At some point she realized Piper was behind her, standing in silent support.

“Do you understand Shaun?” Nora finally asked. Breathed out slowly.

“Not really…I’m trying, Mom.”

“Do you…remember anything, about the Institute?”

“Sometimes when I think about it I can’t remember. And other times I can. Does that happen to you?”

Nora swallowed hard, shifted her knees. Felt Piper’s hand on her shoulder.

“No matter what, Shaun, you are my son. Do you understand? No matter what.”

“Yeah Mom, I know.”

“I have to tell you something that…it’s not easy to say. But you have to know, no matter what, you’re mine. Ok. Nothing changes that.”

Shaun just nodded, uneasy, weight on one foot and then the other.

“You remember synths.” She had to tell him. She’s too tired to lie. Too tired for anything.

“Sure. Machine people.”

She nods. “Some synths, like Glory, are just like people. They feel, love, they have their own thoughts. They deserve their own lives, just like the rest of us. Some of these synths, Shaun, they don’t know they’re synths. They have memories that aren’t really theirs.”

Shaun regarded her strangely and she felt herself stiffen with fear. She saw him begin to understand.

“But it doesn’t mean they’re not real. Shaun. Ok.” She makes sure she can see his eyes, blue and bright even in the catacombs. “You are a synth.” She paused. His expression didn’t change. “You are a very advanced synth. And you were made in the image of someone, like a twin.”

“Father.” He said. Almost sadly.

“That’s right. Even though it seems like Father was much older than me, he was my son. _My first son_. You are…my second son.”

“I don’t understand.” He shakes his head, looks away.

“I know. I know, it’s hard. It’s confusing. But I want you to know that _you are my son_.”

“But what about my memories!” He shouts, scared now. Nora flinches. “What about my Dad! I remember my Dad! What happened to him?” And that’s when Piper saw her break, a little ripple across her face that to someone else would look almost ordinary, but Piper knows.

“I know it’s hard, Shaun. I’m so sorry. I’m always, always here for you.” Nora said, crying like Shaun now, taking him into her arms in earnest before pulling back, ruffling his hair, promising to scrounge up a comic and a Nuka Cola and have a quiet night and then she’s walking away. Out to the cavernous ruined interior of Old North, skeletons and broken Power Armor littering the dusty floor and she falls to her knees and screams through her tears.

Piper followed her, came and held her, shooed away Des and Deacon when they peeked out from the catacombs entrance. She soothed her and whispered to her that it will be ok, that she’s there, she won’t let her do it alone.

But Piper didn’t know what to say when Nora’s eyes turned up towards hers, full of tears and anger and fear, and asked “And what am I going to tell him about you? About his father? How am I going to explain _that_ , Piper?!”

They both stayed motionless, the silence growing around them, until Nora’s tears came again and she lowered her head back down into the dust.

It hit Piper like a train, all the way through.

What that letter must’ve said. What that holotape must’ve said.

 _Oh Blue. I’m so, so sorry Blue_.

-

 

The next day when Nora told Piper to go home to Diamond City, it didn’t surprise her.

But _god dammit did it make her angry_.

“I think it would just be best.” Nora said without looking at her. She was looking over her shoulder back at Shaun who was actually talking to someone. Tinker Tom, but still. After the conversation yesterday he had been reticent; this was progress.

“Blue. I can’t know. I mean…you lost him, and now...”

Nora just nodded.

“But I’m not leaving you. I can’t leave you.”

“Please, Piper…just.” Nora made an exasperated sound, dropped her hands. “I just need…time. With Shaun. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“I could help if you let me.” Piper meant it to sound sweet and sincere but it belied her anger, and Nora heard the edge in her voice.

“This isn’t me not letting you.” Nora hissed. She was so, so tired.

“Yes it is! You think you have to do it all alone but listen, I am here. Please, just. Please let me.”

“I can’t.” Nora shook. She finally looked Piper in the eyes. “Please, just go.”

“Is that really what you want, Blue? Is it?” Piper’s heart broke and it sounded a lot like _do you have a Geiger counter?_

“Yes.” Nora said. Cool and even. She was lying, Piper knew. _She knew it_.

“Don’t do this.”

“I’ll find you in a few days, ok? Just, I need to get him settled. I need to get him safe. Please.”

Piper shook her head. She didn’t have tears left to give. The Brotherhood, and the Institute, and Patriot and Glory had taken them all. She was only tired.

“Ok.” She nodded, defeated. “Ok.”

She left a kiss on Nora’s cheek like a promise to see her again, slipped a pack of bubblegum into Shaun’s pocket, she grabbed her rifle, and walked out.

And she was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I guess in my version Tinker Tom is the only person present at Cambridge, the Prydwen, AND the Institute?
> 
> Tinker Tom, hero of the Railroad, leader of men.


	50. Way Back Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the white hot shock of war, Nora and Piper reunite. Sometimes things that should be easy are hard.

Piper could smell the dust on the air, stale and sour. _I’ve got to open a window_ she thought vaguely, before her thoughts slumped back into Nora.

_Nora, Nora, Nora._

_Blue_.

She had thought they were solid, unbreakable even, but it was true, the fear she shared with Nora: relationships established in a hail of gunfire rarely made it to the finish line. Maybe everything that happened broke them. Maybe the war and the killing and Shaun and all of it broke them.

 _Fuck that_. Piper needed space; she needed air. She needed out of her damn living room. Maybe she could go chase down Geneva about that pending public information request.

She got up, pulling on her fingerless leather gloves before grabbing her coat and hat, despite the day being warm, because it felt like armor and she needed it.

When she swung open the front door to Diamond City Market Place she expected the bright sunlight, the dusty choke of the air, even the sudden wave of conversation carrying from the market stalls down the road.

But what she did not expect was Nora.

Nora, standing on her welcome mat, looking like a scared radstag, one hand reached slightly out like she was just about to knock.

“Blue” Piper gasped, almost too quiet to hear, as she froze with her hand still on the doorframe. Nora could see the shock in her eyes.

A long silence spread between them.

And then Piper noticed that Shaun wasn’t there. For a moment she forgot her anger, her sadness, her surprise, and registered only that Blue’s son was gone.

“Where is Shaun?” She asked, failing to keep the worry from her voice.

“He’s ok.” Nora brightened for a moment. “He’s with Nick. Getting the tour.”

Piper let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d held.

Silence stretched out again between them.

“Piper, I –” Nora reached out, taking a half-step towards the small woman. Piper lifted a hand to quiet her, her face stony. But just as quickly something in her softened, and her hand drop just an inch. “I was so goddamn worried about you.” She said it matter-of-factly, almost defeated.

Nora began to speak again but choked on it, swallowed, and moved the two feet towards Piper to gather her in a deep embrace.

For a moment she felt Piper pull away and a cold fear rushed through her that she had really fucked everything up. But instead the Piper just whispered “inside.”

Nora nodded once and drew back enough to usher Piper into Publick Occurrence, closing the door behind her and turning back to Piper as fast as possible.

Their embrace was fierce and passionate. Nora’s arms encircled Piper with so much force she was worried she might hurt the smaller woman, but Piper only hugged her back harder before finding her face with both hands and kissing her like she’d almost lost her.

Nora lost herself in the hardness and softness of it. “Piper.”

At the sound of her name Piper pulled back from the kiss, lips red and eyes red, rimmed with unfallen tears.

“Ten days Blue. Ten days!” Piper’s grip on Nora slackened. “I should be so mad!” She pushed against the taller woman roughly, enough to punctuate her words. He tone was livid. “Ten fucking days, I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to see you again.”

“You – you what? You thought I _left_ you?” Nora’s voice was incredulous and full of hurt.

“No. Maybe. I wasn’t sure what to think, Blue! Damn it. You just…you asked me to leave. And that was it.”

“Piper, I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry.” Nora ran a shaky hand through her wiry hair, suddenly intent at looking at the ground.

“You keep doing this shit to me, Nora! After the Institute, the first time – ok, we weren’t together, but you just shut me out! Then after Libertalia, you took your sweet goddamn time. Bunker Hill. Do you know how much I worry? I’ve started to think about why it seems like you’re always disappearing when something goes wrong, and I’m just here waiting for you!” Piper gestured angrily with her hands, staring straight into Nora unflinchingly. She had really had enough.

“Piper. Please, I. I want to explain.”

“Explain?” She threw her hands up again. “Explain what?” Suddenly, as quickly as her tone had become angry it turned sad. “Why you keep leaving?”

Nora took a deep breath and began to speak, clearly and slowly, and measured, as if she had practiced but it was still hard to say.

“When Shaun showed up, I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t even face him at first. You know, you were there. But somehow, even though he’s not, he feels like Shaun. _My Shaun. My son_.” She looked up at Piper, woeful and sharp. “Telling him about what he was, that was awful. Telling him about his father who wasn’t his father; about you, us. That was damn near impossible. How could I tell this boy that I’d moved on, forgotten the man that died to save him? Loved again so quickly? It was like…facing all my decisions again, facing Nate again.” Piper flinched but did not break eye contact. “I was afraid for his safety. I wanted to uncomplicated his life, focus on finding a safe place for him. How am I supposed to be around him? This strange ageless boy who’s hardly ever seen the sun? The boy I was sure I lost?”

Tears were flowing freely from Nora’s eyes now. She didn’t even try to wipe them away.

“I know, I know I still have guilt about Nate. I know I still have shame, about myself. But I also know you are 23 years old and you didn’t sign up for any of this. You didn’t sign up for a lover with a son, a son nearly a teenager now, a son who’s not human, a son I don’t even remember. I know that wasn’t the plan for us.”

Piper could feel her face grow hot. She wanted to stop Nora and to yell at her _You took Nat, with me, like a package deal! You love her! Why do you think I wouldn’t take Shaun just the same?_ but miraculously she didn’t. Nora needed this; Piper needed to listen. Her fingers, formed into tight fists at her sides, bit into her palms as she tried not to react.

“But I still wanted to know” Nora went on, her voice changing in a way Piper couldn’t recognize, “I still wanted to know, what do you think Pipes?”

Piper cocked her head curiously, fingers loosening almost imperceptibly.

“Can you take me, just the same?” Nora asked finally with those watery pale blue eyes fixed on Piper’s sharp hazel ones.

“Jesus, Blue.” Piper said with true incredulity, having ridden the rollercoaster of Nora’s words. “I already did. Nothing’s going to change that. _Nothing_.”

Nora let out a shaky half-laugh, half-sob, and cast her eyes to the floor.

“But.” Piper said, stronger now, reaching out to lift Nora’s chin back up. “But you can’t do this to me again, Blue. You have to _trust me_. You can’t just vanish like that. I can’t tell you how much it hurts.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“I know, I know you are Blue. I know you don’t mean to do it. But you leaving, it doesn’t just put my life on hold.  You’re not the only one who killed people. You’re not the only one who pressed that button.”

Nora’s teary eyes flashed in recognition at Piper’s words.

“Piper, god.”

“It was so hard for me, Blue.” Piper whispered, beginning to cry herself now. “I was so angry. I thought you left me.”

“No, god.” Nora rushed to gather Piper back into her arms. Their hug was close and muffling. “Never, never.”

“I don’t need an ‘out.’ I don’t need space. I need _you_. So don’t – don’t –” her voice broke “don’t do that again.”

“Never. I swear.”

It was long minutes before their embrace broke again, and when it did both women went to wipe their eyes.

“So Shaun is with Nick, huh?”

Nora nodded. “And Ellie. And Dogmeat. I wanted him to see everything. I’d like him to meet Nat too, and see your home. If that’s ok with you. I thought we might get noodles together?”

“I think I’d like that Blue.” Piper grinned genuinely now, eyes not yet dry. Nora grinned back through her own tears.

“I’m supposed to meet them back at Nick’s at six. What time is it?”

Nora checked the soft glow of her Pip-Boy. “Three.”

The women gazed at each other for only a moment, feeling the potential between them.

“Can I hold you, Piper?” Nora finally said, very quietly.

“Yes.”

They moved wordlessly upstairs and when Piper laid out on the bed Nora laid over her, and for a long time they found themselves just holding each other, stroking hair and giving soft kisses and whispering I love yous, until Piper let her last wall fall down and touched Nora with unmistakable purpose.

They made love like coming home, Nora holding Piper by the wrists as the smaller woman came below her, Nora shuttering with pleasure herself, Piper’s name coursing through her veins with every heartbeat.

-

By six they were holding hands outside Valentine’s Detective Agency, Nat sitting between Piper’s knees on the curb, restless with anticipation, until Dogmeat rounded the corner like a scout and the two groups clashed with hugs and smiles and, between Nat and Shaun, an adorably serious handshake.

By seven everyone was at Takahashi’s bench with a bowl of noodles, and by nine the group had made it to Piper’s living room for a few rounds of Blast Radius and charades.

By midnight Nick and Ellie had gone, Shaun was asleep on the couch and Nat in her cot, and Piper was taking the last drag of a cigarette on her rooftop balcony. She felt Nora’s strong arms encircle her from behind, and she leaned back into the touch.


	51. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A small vignette of Nora and Piper's life after they start to heal. 
> 
> Feelings; sex (kinda dirty sex). And for some reason a lot of Geneva?

Piper stepped out into the sunlight of Diamond Street Marketplace, no worries of Blue on her mind. This time she welcomed the sun, the dust, the noise of the street.

She had, after all, had a very pleasant morning. Now Nat was at work, Shaun was sitting in at school for the day, and Blue was paying Arturo a visit for repairs; her Power Armor took the usual amount of damage in the glowing sea, when Nora had made good on her promise to Virgil. So Piper figured she should finally do the unpleasant business of seeing Geneva.

Her stroll to the elevator and her ride up was unusually enjoyable, especially knowing that the tiny brunette figure at Arturo’s stand had woken up warm in her arms. But by the time the elevator lurched to a standstill she remembered she had to deal with Geneva and her mood dropped back down.

“Well, look, Ms. Piper Wright to pay us a visit.” Geneva greeted Piper with her usual unpleasantness.

“Geneva.”

“Word around town is that your girlfriend brought in a little boy a few weeks ago, and no infant, either. You didn’t happen to know she had a ten-year-old kid, did you Ms. Wright?” Geneva sneered, clearly enjoying the opportunity to embarrass Piper. “Or does the Publick not enjoy being targeted by gossip as much as spreading it?”

“If you did your job, Geneva, you would know that _Shaun_ ” she emphasized his name “was the same boy that came in with Kellogg last year, a detail you either failed to report or, if I’m being generous, failed to notice. Which is the most I could say for that business with McDonough.” Piper gloated. She was never going to get over being right about that.

“Ohhoh, _generous_. What are you here for Piper?”

“The information request I submitted last week.”

“Oh, that? I’m afraid you used outdated paperwork. A shame, you might even have to resubmit.” Geneva spat in mock-politeness.

“Bullshit, Geneva.”

“Oh, hmmm, let me see. Where is that form…”

“Jesus, ok!” Piper let out testily, and then grumbled “how much?”

“I don’t know what you are talking ab-“

“How much, Geneva?” Piper practically growled. She just wanted to be done with it and get back down to her Blue.

“Well, I have been wanting to get my hair cut…”

“15 then?”

“And dyed…”

“Jesus, 30, ok.”

“Oh, and my nails done!”

“50 and that’s it, Geneva. You know I don’t like dealing like this.”

“You don’t like dealing at all, Piper. That’s your problem. But the world doesn’t revolve around you.”

Piper rolled her eyes and put 50 caps down on the table ungracefully.

“Oh look, I found that file you requested.” Geneva said cheerfully.

Piper snatched it right out of her hands and walked back to the lift, ignoring Geneva’s feigned polite goodbye and not even bothering to wave her off.

On the way down, with the late morning sun over Diamond City, Piper opened the file she’d been after all week.

_Wells, Nora; Security Report_

The first page was bureaucratic bullshit and a little bit about her working with Nick.

The second page was what she was looking for: Deacon’s report on Nora when he was posing as Diamond City Security to trace her before their first meeting with the Railroad. Deacon had asked her to retrieve it for “information control” and promised to compensate her with a good story for the Publick.

It seemed like really general things at first glance – activity, sleep schedule, conversations she’d had. But she recognized the unmistakable signs of code, stray letters, intentional misspellings, incorrect punctuation and underlined words and phrases. Now she was curious. Whatever this was for, her story better be worth 50 caps. And at least mostly true. _Wait, what is this third page…?_

The lift lurched to a halt. Piper hadn’t even realized she’d reached the ground.

The third page of the file read _Living Will: Nora Wells_.

A tiny, tiny voice inside of her told her not to read it, that it was a violation of privacy. Piper squashed that voice. It was a matter of public record, after all, even if she had to bribe her way to it. But something in her told her to wait until she was inside to read it.

So she hurried into house with the file tucked under her arm and tossed her coat and hat on her bed before settling down at her desk to read it carefully.

>  
> 
> Living Will: Nora Wells
> 
> I, the undersigned Nora Wells, of Sanctuary, do legally grant the following individuals sole ownership and responsibility for all my named possessions, located within the Jurisdiction of Diamond City, and any and all financial wealth also named, less legal and funerary fees in accordance with city law:
> 
> Piper Wright, Publick Occurrences, Diamond City Market Road, Diamond City
> 
> Restricted to use only for:
> 
> Pursuing and maintaining the freedom of the press and the spirit of the truth
> 
> Notes:
> 
> Piper,
> 
> I know if you’re reading this then things have not gone as planned these last few weeks. We both knew this was a risk, and accepted it, and I need you to know there was nothing you could’ve done to stop me or save me. I was on this path long before we met.
> 
> This new world was hard for me, and I’ve spent plenty of time hating it, but being with you has been the highlight of my life. Not just my life after the war. My whole life. I was hoping I could do what I needed to and come back to you, but it hasn’t turned out that way. Please know that what you gave me these last few months made my life worth living, and the amount of good we’ve been able to do is something I died very proud of.
> 
> I know telling Nat about this is going to be hard, so I want you to tell her how much I loved her and how proud I was of her: the newspaper, the apprenticeship, how smart and funny she is. How much she’s like you and also completely her own person.
> 
> And you, Piper. I want you to know that I’ve never, never loved anyone like I love you. I love you so much I don’t think I could ever really write it down, or that I ever really, really succeeded in telling you. I know moving on from me will be difficult, but I want to be able to find someone else in time. You are too wonderful not to be loved, and so is Nat.
> 
> I’m sorry I couldn’t come back to you. I’m sorry I broke my promise. But you made me truly happy, Piper. Even if I died in some terrible way, in enemy territory or being tortured or whatever, it doesn’t matter. I died happy because of you.
> 
> I love you.

Below the note, the document was signed by Nora and Geneva and dated. Hardly more than a month ago.

_Nora wrote this specifically because she feared never coming back from the Institute._

Piper laid the page down with trembling fingers, not even trying to stem the flow of tears which were running freely down her cheeks and onto her desk. She sobbed for what felt like an hour, tears carrying her sadness and love and overwhelming _something_. Catharsis, maybe.

She cried until she heard the door open downstairs and Nora call up to her.

“Hey Pipes! Back from Arturo’s. What do you wanna do for lunch?”

Piper couldn’t bring herself to respond. She was still sniffling and trembling.

“Piper?” She heard Nora rustle around downstairs before starting up towards the bedroom. There was really nothing Piper could do but be discovered. She furiously tried to wipe her tears away but she knew it wasn’t helping.

Nora walked through the threshold and immediately put it together. She saw Piper, eyes red and bleary, siting at her office chair with the papers strewn on her desk.

“Oh.”

“I’m, I’m ok Blue. I’m sorry.” Piper said through her sniffles.

Nora knelt in front of Piper, desk to her back, and took both hands in her own.

“Read my will, huh?”

“I didn’t know you wrote one.”

“I didn’t want to leave you without anything if something happened. You’re my person, Piper. I wanted you to know that.”

“Your ‘person’? Does ‘human being’ sound too intimate to you?” Piper teased, even through her tears.

Nora chuckled. “You’re my _partner_ , then. I wouldn’t have written it and filed it with Geneva if I didn’t also want everyone to know. That if I died you’d be the one mourning me. That I was yours to mourn.”

Nora’s words sent Piper back to crying, sweeter this time, more from love and less from the thought of how close she’d been to losing Nora.

The taller woman leaned forward and picked up her reporter, hugged her trembling body, and sat them both down on the edge of her bed.

“You are the best thing that ever, even happened to me, Blue. I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

“It was the gumdrops, mostly. And putting up with my flighty shit.”

Piper scoffed good-naturedly and playfully punched Nora’s closest shoulder. “You’re worth it. I can’t believe you wrote that, Blue. It was…really beautiful. Heh, leave it to you to make a legal document romantic.”

“Guess some things never change.” Nora turned Piper’s head towards her, catching her gaze. “I meant it, all of it.”

“I know.” Piper gasped, lips parting slightly.

“Come to bed. I’ll show you how much.”

Piper leaned forward, enough towards Nora to brush her lips against Nora’s chin. Nora felt an electric shiver run through Piper’s petit body that seemed to jump into her right as Piper let out a held breath and dropped her hands.

In a second they fell back onto the bed together, Piper on top, the taller woman’s hands shooting instantly under Piper’s t-shirt.

Their lips crashed into one another hotly, Piper’s hair plastering to Nora’s forehead and cheeks. Nora could feel the heat come off of the smaller woman’s body, her neck and shoulders – she was wound up. Nora should’ve known wooing her with the written word was the way to go.

As their tongues met Nora could feel Piper’s hands snake up her sides and under the band of the sports bra she wore. She could feel the softness of Piper’s stomach against her own and a thigh press insistently against her.

But Nora had to get control of this situation. Using her larger frame she flipped Piper onto her back, sat up, and discarded her own top before ripping off Piper’s and letting her mouth fall hungrily to her breasts.

Piper moaned, loudly. Nora never got over how loud Piper could let herself be when she was…relaxed.

“Blue…” Piper breathed shakily as Nora turned her body and nestled behind her, mouth at her neck and sensitive ear. When she bit down oh so gently Piper arched away and gasped, gripping Nora’s hand with her own around her waist.

“Mmmm. You feel so good, beautiful.” Nora hummed into her ear, knowing even the feel of hot breath on her ear was driving Piper crazy. “Tell me how you feel.”

Piper squirmed. “ _Good_ , Blue. I want you.”

Nora nuzzled further into the smaller woman, displacing thick black hair. She nipped Piper again, below the ear this time, moving her free hand to massage Piper’s exposed hip and moving her trapped arm under Piper’s armpit to wrap around her torso. Her fingers travels lightly over her stiffened nipples, only teasing for now.

“I…” Piper took a shallow breath, voice dropping an octave. “I want to hear you.”

 _Wow._ If Piper could’ve looked behind her she would’ve seen Nora’s eyes change, dark as night and hungry. “Ok.” Nora’s arms tightened around Piper. “You want to hear about how crazy you make me? How badly I want to be inside of you? How badly I want to hold you while I make you come? How much I want to make you feel good?” Nora allowed her hand to wander up Piper’s body under her shirt to cup her breast, fingers playing gently with her nipple.

“B-Blue. Jesus. Don’t stop.”

“I love you like this. I love when we play this game.” Nora pinched, Piper gasped. “And you lose.”

“I would never lose to you” Piper breathed through a smile.

“Sure about that, papergirl?” Another pinch, gasp. Nora was in control. “You sure you don’t want to lose to me? Don’t want my hands on you? Because I think you do. I think you want to be touched like this.”

Piper squirmed, ass pressing harder into Nora, almost grinding. Nora bit the inside of her cheek.

“I could tease you, here.” Nora’s hand slid down, down Piper’s soft stomach to the edge of her panties “I could play with you –” Nora’s hand plunged under the fabric and into Piper’s folds, drenched. “To feel how fucking wet you were. God Piper, you’re so ready for me.”

Piper’s breathing hitched and a high whine escaped her lips. _She’s this close, already?_

“I am.” Piper said in a cracking whisper.

 _She’s going to kill me._ “Slowly, just like this.” Nora continued her relaxed pace, wanting to work up Piper enough to come at the slightest touch. She drew tight, firm circles over Piper’s swollen clit. “I’m going to open you up–” Nora used her fingers to separate Piper’s lips, exposing her. “God, you feel perfect.” Nora allowed her middle finger to trail down to Piper’s opening, playing with her but not penetrating.

“Blue….Jesus…”

“I’m so lucky to have you.” She pushed a single finger into Piper, moving it slowly in and out. “I’d do anything for you. I want to make you come.” Nora continued her slow movement, bringing her other hand to restart those tight circles over Piper’s clit, working her in tandem, knowing she was right on the edge. “I want to touch you until you can’t take it –”

“I’m…” Piper moaned desperately. Nora could feel her buck and tighten in her arms.

“Are you going to come for me?” Nora hissed, letting her teeth close on Piper’s ear, knowing what that did to her. It was all it took.

“BLUE!” Piper bucked hard, straining against Nora’s strong arms, back arching and head thrown back in ecstasy as she came hard in Nora’s embrace. For long heartbeats Piper’s hands scrabbled for Nora, finally finding her forearms and clamping down to ride out her orgasm as wave after wave of intense pleasure washed over her, each punctuated with a deep groan.

Nora didn’t let up until she could feel and hear Piper beginning to relax, and even then she only released her ear and breast, continuing to rub Piper’s clit to coax out the last of her aftershocks.

Finally Piper went completely limp in Nora’s arms. For a few minutes they stayed this way in silence, until, without a word, Piper turned over to face Nora. Her cheeks and neck were flushed and her eyes were glassy but relaxed. Nora brushed a limp strand of hair off Piper’s forehead and tucked it behind her ear.

“ _Blue_ , God.”

“That was something.” Nora grinned happily, brushing a hand through Piper’s hair.

“It was.” Piper chuckled weakly. “It always is with you, doll.”

“So…” Nora drawled. “You’re not going to off me for my inheritance?”

“Not until I wear you out, survivorgirl.” Piper hummed happily, nuzzling Nora’s neck with her cold nose, snaking a hand down Nora’s belly. “I’m going to get you back.”

“I’d suggest keeping me around a little _ah_ –” Piper’s clever fingers reached the short wiry thatch of Nora’s hair – “a little longer, sweetheart. I make a great bodyguard. Full service.”

Piper laughed, full and deep. “You are so much trouble.”

“Mmm,” Nora made a sound between agreement and pleasure. “You’ll need me alive if you really want the scoop on Nick’s new Nakano case.”

“Or a feature on Preston’s sea monster obsession.”

“Or the story on that weird Nuka World radio signal.”

“Plenty of time for that later, dollface.” Piper mumbled sweetly. For this, the presses could wait. “We’ve got all the time in the world.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for sticking with me. 50 chapters! A harrowing document recovery! These ladies amirite! It's been fun. But really, thank you all so much for reading and for your feedback. I love reading every comment!


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